Howl's Moving Castle

Having seen most of Miyazaki's magnificent films, I was really looking forward to seeing this film. Judging by the trailers, this latest creation from the ingenious mind of one of Japan's most talented and legendary film makers of all time it looked to be another smashing success. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as awe inspiring as any of his previous gems.

The movie starts out very promising and continues in the traditional vein of Miyazaki taking his audience on a magical journey to an imaginary world where anything is possible. It almost goes without saying that the artwork is incredible, as always, and the level of detail and passion for the images displayed on screen goes unquestioned.

However, the story falls almost completely apart with little to no continuity accompanied by giant, gaping plot holes that leave one wondering what in the wonderful world of Miyazaki is going on here? The story actually flows pretty smoothly with a few minor glitches up until the last half hour at which point it essentially falls apart. Apparently by reading the book the film is based on one would have a better idea of why things occur as they do and would shed some background on what exactly is going on with the two warring factions, Sophie, Howl and the Wicked Witch of the Waste's curses. Movie audiences should not be required to know the full background though in order to enjoy a film, so in that regard Miyazaki disappoints because he leaves WAY too much to the imagination, so much so that it is to the point where the audience would have to write a few chapters just to fill the story gaps. No amount of beautiful animation can compensate for shoddy story telling, not even Miyazaki.

Quite frankly there is not enough exposition to provide an adequate framework for understanding what is going on with Sophie, and some major inconsistencies such as why her age seems to fluctuate between old and young over the latter half of the film, even though the curse is only supposed to make her old until the spell cast on her is broken. The audience is given a rather vague idea of what Howl's involvement with the two warring kingdoms is, what he does in his spare time and why the things that happen to him occur as they do.

There is an intriguing part of the story involving Madam Suliman who is the royal arch sorceress and how she was the master of Howl at one point, but this story arch is highly underdeveloped and despite the high flying premise of the idea it never really takes off. She also has something to do with the Wicked Witch of the Waste, but that's never fleshed out either. Hence, the audience is left hanging and wondering how these thematic elements all tie together.

I did notice one major problem with the film besides the aforementioned incongruities which is that many major concepts are copied directly from Miyazaki's previous films, including script and art elements. The giant black, slimy blobs from 'Spirited Away' play a fairly important part in 'Howl's Moving Castle', as does winged air ships and the smaller flying ships known from 'Laputa: Castle In the Sky', and perhaps the biggest concept that Miyazaki copied from his own previous work is the idea/depiction of Howl and his alter ego, which was highly reminiscent of one of the major character characters from 'Spirited Away', Haku. Coincidental I suppose since I haven't read the book but it just felt like the portrayal and concept was cut and pasted from 'Spirited Away'.

Overall I enjoyed it purely on an artistic level, and while some of the magic is still evident from the brilliant mind of Miyazaki, the film seemed to be a smorgasbord of several of his films rolled into one, and not a very fluid, successful attempt at that. The story was disjointed and even though the story wrapped up with a sweet ending, there was still so much more that went unanswered and unfulfilled. Basically it comes down to a great deal of potential with this amazing premise (the book is most likely far better) but sadly not even Miyazaki could conceptualize this complex, intriguing and enchanting tale.

It's still far better than most animation out there including the majority of what Hollywood churns out, but it's definitely sub-par for the standard set by Miyazaki himself. Worth seeing once, but not owning.

This movie by Hayao Miyazaki is beautiful! The details in the background and on the characters makes them feel real. The story line is wonderful too. For anyone not entirely sure of which of the Miyazaki films to choose from, I would pick this one first.

Hayao Miyazaki is a master anime artist. There are few in the world today who can rival him. While perhaps this story isn't as good as some of his others, nevertheless his productions grow more impressive with each release. I have every Miyazaki film dubbed in English and this is one of my favorites.

LOVE this movie. My children and I will watch it over and over again. I have also told many friends about it.

A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART BASED ON THE BOOK BY DIANA JONES. THE UNIQUE ROMANCE IS ENCHANTING AND PULLS PEOPLE OF ANY AGE INTO THE MAGICAL TALE BEING WOVEN. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE. ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED. EXCELENT!!