Anime Review: Howl's moving castle

Review Howl's moving castle Written by Warpshadow Rating very good/ excellent

Sometimes I don't know why I review Miyazaki movies. I know why I watch them, they are good. Their quality is something that is almost held as a fact rather than an opinion but I still review them anyway.

The story begins when Sophie is jolted from her mundane life by an encounter with a wizard. While seem innocuous enough, she inadvertently draws the ire of the witch of the waste. She curses Sophie with premature age and the inability to reveal her curse. So Sophie treks out into the wilderness to find a wizard who can cure her. Luck find her as a giant moving castle passes by and she decides to stay the night. The castle is owned by Howl the wizard she met earlier and who decides to take her in as a cleaning lady.

Being that Howl's moving castle is a novel adaptation it is somewhat different than other Miyazaki films. There is more character development than in most Ghibli films with both Sophie and Howl being very complex characters for a two hour movie. There are also some down points to this approach, for example there is a war going on which feels poorly connected to the main plot. The issue of Sophie's curse also feels like a replay of Porco Rosso but a bit less subtle this time around. This is not to say that this is a bad movie and the music and animation are wonderful as always.