Hayao Miyazaki. That pretty much sums up what were about to take a peek at in this review. With his Ghibli films, you can expect many whimsical moments and lots of great visuals. The film in review is the Howl’s Moving Castle. Released in 2004, it is a tale of magic, love and two countries at war.
A young hat store worker by the name of Sophie, is running a usual business errand and is then suddenly harassed by two soldiers. To her recues comes a mysterious blond man with magical powers. Not only does he take care of the two bothersome men, but also drags Sophie along as they run away from strange beings tailing them. With time, this teenage girl finds an aging curse cast onto her, and unravels the mystery of who the wizard known as Howl truly is.
The point of interest in this film is all the magical spells and the way they drive the plot. The curse of being turned into an old lady forces Sophie to not only physically change but also her identity as she seeks help within Howl’s home. She makes a deal from Calcifer the fire demon.
Who is also under a spell to binds him to Howl (and is also the source of energy that keeps Howl’s castle moving). Adding to the maze and intrigue of spells, is the fact that Howl uses magic doors that give him the ability to make his house appear in different locations. Which coincide with the fact that he lives under different identities in each location.
This being the complexity you usually see in most Miyazaki films. Like in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away(and every other Miyazaki film), you see the physical and mental changes going hand in hand. Howl has to balance the identities and the business he runs under them. Sophie has to be a completely new person as she becomes old in an instant, and The Witch of the Waste has to constantly deal with being a semi blob when walking around.
You thought the wwe schedule was hard before.
But I will say the romance between Howl and Sophie falls kind of flat. The effects of the curse on Sophie start to weaken when she shows signs of true love. But we don’t really see why exactly she would love howl so much (especially when we see this effect occur a little too early for her to know Howl well).
But Calcifer totally keeps it real.
Then the major selling point of all Ghibli films, the visuals. Wide landscape shots play well into film (set in a pre world war one Europe looking environment). Either when Howl’s castle walks around the country side or when bombing campaigns completely level cities below. Speaking of those, the aerial battles are an amazing site. The bombing ships (a mixture of a big plane and blimp) are drawn in vivid detail. Howl turning into a bird form in order to fight flying creatures make for excellent action scenes. As for Howl’s castle itself, you see many intricate details on how it works from the inside. A feast for the eyes.
So that is Howl’s Moving Castle. An adventure an imaginative land(like most Miyazaki films). A movie you should at least see once. Although I prefer the subtitled version of all anime, but in the dub version the role of Howl is played by Christian Bale (although not in the voice you’d think he would do).
Swear to my castle!!
About the author: Glitch is a digital demon from planet Fanboy, and is here to teach us humans a thing or two. You can find more of his reviews(and nonsense) over at http://www.youtube.com/takenoutofcontext, https://www.facebook.com/takenoutofcontext