Howl's Moving Castle

I prefer the voices of the Korean version better than the English, but other than that, the movie excels in the movie department. In each of Miyazaki's movies, a beautiful score is written, but Howl's Moving Castle's score is especially excellent. While listening to the music, watch the scenery: clouds, lush pastures, a day in a fantastical European city...The story also, though quite different from the book, is pure with a wonderful love. Miyazaki again produces a wonder, and give meaning to cinematographic animation.

The Score has pure magic in it; it's Joe Hisashi's best work
The Voice Acting of Christian Bale and Jean Simmons fully personifys the characters
The way the love story develops feels just like some classic Golden Age movie

i watched the first half of this movie trying to understand and enjoy it but it was so boring and meaningless that didn't allow me to watch it to the end.

The story line doesn't make sense, the characters are depicted awfully and weird, a boy with long beard, an old woman cleaning a house over and over again, a young man who looks like a girl but has a deep manly voice; all confuisiing and nonsense.

but to be totally fair there was one positive point in this move, the beautiful backgrouds which were painted just great and if you just look at them as still pictures, you would say "wow" this is amazing;

if i want to watch this again, i turn off the voice, put on a soft music, and fast forward the movie to get to those scenes with awesome back grounds and then fast forward it again.

While this is Anime it contains Manga moments but is for children and adults alike will love it too. The animation is sublime and the visuals are like a dream come to life. You have never seen anything like this before. It is hard to describe the story because the fantasy really is thick and at least ninety percent of the film takes places in a dreamlike vision, yet it still manages to gel together and you know that you are witnessing something not quite like anything you have ever experienced before.

A young Sophie finds herself under an old age curse by the Witch of the Waste, leaves town and accidentally finds Howl's moving castle in the country where she befriends the magician Howl and the fire demon Calcifer along with other interesting creatures and people that lead her on a journey through magical worlds.

Essentially it's a love story and it is love that pulls all the pieces together. Even the wicked get loved. It works on so many levels and is all about life. Its like watching Titanic for the first time. Just get this at all costs and let yourself go with the majesty of Howl's moving castle.

I absolutely loved this movie. I'm not really into anime and don't even know why I decided to watch this....but I'm really glad I did. This is now one of my favorite movies. It's so magical and fantastical and romantic. I love Sophie's attitude. I love that she is such a positive person, even if she doesn't think she's beautiful on the outside. I love her reaction to being cursed into an old lady...she didn't panic, or get hysterical...i love how she decided to look at the positive, commenting on how her dress suites her better now. I love that! Its as if the curse was a reflection of how she felt on the inside so she accepted it because she always felt ugly anyway. And the prince, who is so vain, the opposite of her, sees her beauty. Awwww....how can you not love that?