The winds are down but there is ocean overwash out at Rodanthe keeping Hatteras broken in two. No ferry access there. Swan Quarter will start their ferry runs this evening. We’ll likely catch an early ride from there tomorrow.

In the meantime, Tucker and I watched Howl’s Moving Castle. The best anime storytelling of a British tale designed and directed by Hayao Miyazaki (of Spirited Away fame) and executed by Pixar (as owned by Disney at the time). Much news good and bad. The worst is the Calcifer, fire demon, character who smells too much of the kind of characters voiced by Robin Williams — parrots, genies etc. But overall a very successful crossing of cultures — Japanimation, Pixarwood, and British wizardly storytelling. Some bumps in that melding but overall well-met.

Godzilla: Final Wars though was a badly done work even by the low bar set by Godzilla movies. I love what that low bar produces. But that movie played like a bad preview for a video game. The characters, their motions and the unlucky sound track by Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Keith Emerson was annoyingly game influenced. Influenced by bad game music at that. The translation involved here was not culture as identity but culture as media format. Godzilla Final Wars the movie was more of a excuse and a long trailer for Godzilla Final Wars the game. In many cases, traffic between movie and game culture works or is at least amusing. This time it failed at every turn. And they left out Biollante.