Howl no Ugoku Shiro

I love the Studio Ghibli films. So far I think it is safe to say that Miyazaki is my favourite anime author, and I doubt anyone will ever take his place because I have grown so attached to the work of this man and his ideals reflected on the way he conceives animation, that I can't think of a deeper connection with one's style in any way.

That is the reason why "Howl's moving castle" was, at my first viewing, a serious disappointment. It was the first time a movie by Miyazaki didn't transport me to the world and imagery it showed. Almost two years later, ... however, and trying to bring another perspective about this film, I have watched it again, and while this has worked with some other works, it seems "Howl" is still my thorn in Miyazaki's filmography and will always be.

Of course the world introduced here is amazing. This is probably the most gorgeous and visually powerful film Miyazaki has ever done, just watch the scenery, the many traces of impressive imagery, and of course Joe Hisaishi with another solid performance. It's a pleasure for the senses, such a beautiful experience to look at and hear that surely makes it worth viewing.

But that is not an excuse for the many plot holes and sudden changes in character behaviour. That is, in the same way we have a really eye-candy experience given only by the -already known- technical skills of Miyazaki and his group of animators, the story is always lacking.

I would seriously like to be able to fill my review with interpretations and theories about this fascinating world, but quite honestly, didn't find any thread to follow or to keep my interest on. I just can't sit through what in my opinion are clear character and story inconsistencies sucking the emotion or the involvement in whatever the movie is trying to tell me. I won't go with specific scenes to avoid spoiling anyone, but will just say that I find it really disappointing to find that Sophie, the girl who is supposed to introduce me to the story and let me see the events from her eyes, looks so incoherent and variable in her interaction with many of the elements, say the Witch of the Waste or the reactions at some magic events happening around her.

The construction of the storyline is pretty poor, and that is fully shown at an ending scene that feels rushed and ridiculous, where there is not any hint to follow why some characters make some relevant decisions, and looks just plain lazy writing. Really, really lazy, and unsatisfactory. I don't know the original source, but I know Miyazaki far enough to be sure that the fact the novel may or may not be good shouldn't affect the quality of the movie, as in his adaptations he chooses to change stuff freely in order to adjust it to his own subjects and concerns.

It has been said that in this case the plotline is secondary, and it should be seen as a fascinating travel around a world full of magic, where the logic is not needed and if it appears it doesn't make any effect in the enjoyment of the movie. I couldn't disagree more with that statement. During my experience in Miyazaki's works, I have found often this recurrent idea about him, seeing his films as powerful visuals with messed up plots, and as far as I can tell I have never conceived them in that way. Even -and specially- at his least linear and most complex narrative, "Spirited away", every event tries to follow an internal logic, therefore the plot is here and is unavoidable. It also should happen with "Howl"; the fact that it's filled with fantastic and strange elements isn't a valid excuse to make the storytelling lackluster and inconsistent, and of course doesn't change the fact it is needed. More so when it's so clearly intended to be.

In conclusion, and while I can say this work is extremely powerful and memorable at the artistic aspects, I still see it as an unsuccessful attempt that becomes evident at the many plot holes and lack of competent character writing. As entertaining as it could be, it is my biggest disappointment with the otherwise excellent work of this director and the only one that has never fulfilled my expectations.

Overview:

I'm currently on a quest to watch every Miyazaki movie and I'm almost done. Miyazaki has the highest batting average of any writer/director in anime as far as I'm concerned. I guess it was inevitable that eventually even he would swing and miss. This is the beautifully animated mess called Howl's Moving Castle.

Background:

Firstly, Miyazaki is at his very best when he writes his own material and creates his own original stories. He has shown he CAN do brilliant adaptations like Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle of Cagliostro, but the source material needs to mesh well with his own writing style, preferred themes, and tone. With ... Howl, Miyazaki decided to adapt a very mediocre children's book and force his own unique quirks and traits into it. It just felt like a square peg being hammered through a round hole. It was also 2004, so Miyazaki changed the script halfway through production to shoehorn in a war sub-plot that wasn't in the novel and doesn't remotely fit the narrative and tone of the novel. Come on Miyazaki! I know you were mad about the Iraq War. We all hate the Neo Cons. This didn't fit in a children's story with an absurdist plot that ONLY worked because it didn't take itself seriously! This felt as wildly out of place as inserting Glenn Greenwald's anti- US Imperialism diatribes into Green Eggs and Ham.


Story:

Howl is an elusive wizard who lives in a moving steampunk castle. Everyone tells terrible rumors about him, but it's all bullshit. He's actually a nice guy for the most part, just a bit selfish and cowardly. Our heroine is a young hatmaker named Sophie, who is cursed by the evil Witch of the Waste to have the body of an old woman. Even worse, the curse makes it so she isn't allowed to tell anyone her true identity. Sophie journeys into the Waste to find a way to reverse the curse and ends up stumbling upon Howl's castle. She decides to just start living there and offers to be his cleaning lady, which he accepts. Howl is constantly running from the Witch of the Waste because he once was in love with her beauty, but left when he realized how evil she was. She has been doggedly pursuing him in order to steal his heart...literally. This was all from the novel. The first half is a straightforward adaptation that improves upon a lackluster story by adding Miyazaki's trademark playfulness and sentimentality.

Now we start the 2nd half and everything goes to shit. Howl is called by multiple countries to turn himself in and transform himself into a monster to be used in a massive World War. This war is being orchestrated by Howl's evil former teacher, who wasn't in the book. She wishes to drain other witches and wizards of their powers and transform them into monsters to create a glorious war. She has no clear plans for global domination like the villain in Laputa, she just really loves war I guess. Howl ends up sending Sophie to meet this evil lady and she drains the Witch of the Waste (the actual villain from the book) of her powers and relegates her to comic relief. Howl ends up swooping in to save Sophie along with the Witch of the Waste and evil Warmonger witch's dog...for some reason. Howl is slowly transforming into a monster, but this is never really explored and leads nowhere. The Waste Witch tries to steal Howl's heart and Sophie ends up inexplicably risking Howl's life to save the evil bitch. Then Sophie falls into a canyon and inexplicably survives. She finds a random door which leads into the past, so she can see how Howl gained his powers. She then pops back to the future and finds Howl there injured but alive. Howl gives up his powers to restore his heart and the Warmonger witch, who has apparently been spying on them via the dog, just randomly decides to end the war and give up. The End.

Characters:

Sophie is easily the worst Miyazaki heroine. She starts the story wise and resourceful. She doesn't have a character arc to complete. She doesn't really have any interesting traits or characteristics. Howl starts off with very clear flaws, but his journey to fix those flaws is horribly executed because the 2nd half of the film is a beautifully animated, explosive taco shit. The Witch of the Waste was clearly evil and then after getting her powers drained becomes a senile goofball. The warmonger witch just turns good out of fucking nowhere for no reason. I know Miyazaki wanted to have a pacifist theme, so he didn't want a traditional violent confrontation with the villain. That worked in Princess Mononoke because the antagonist was clearly established as morally complex and not simply evil. Howl is like if the villain in Laputa gained the flying death fortress after killing hundreds of soldiers and then just suddenly turned good! If you establish a villain as an evil warmonger and you don't want a violent resolution, have Howl encourage the people to stand up to her! Maybe the soldiers throw down their arms and refuse to shoot the civilians, which causes her to flee. Don't just have her turn good at random!

Art: The ONLY reason I gave this a 6. The art is absolutely gorgeous.

Sound: Pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.


Overall:

I haven't seen Ponyo yet, but I'm willing to bet this is going to be the worst Miyazaki movie for me by a country mile. The art and animation is beautiful and it clearly tried hard, but nothing in this film worked. The characters, the story, the themes, were all a mess. Yet somehow this piece of shit might be the highest rated Miyazaki film on MAL. HOW?! Did people just give it a 10 back in 2008 because Miyazaki made it and then everyone forgot about it? I guess people actually talk about how good Naussica, or Spirited Away or Porco Rosso is and this inspires backlash and rating bombing from random assholes. This manages to escape unscathed because nobody online goes on and on about how amazing this movie is. This is NOBODY's favorite Miyazaki film. It's a wonderful looking mistake.

I got the book this move was based off of randomly at the library one day, and really enjoyed it. When I heard this move existed I was quite happy, that is until I actually watched it. It seemed to me that a lot of the plot was cut out, and that the characters just weren't the characters I had come to love.
I even found myself confused by the end. I don't think things were explained enough. A lot of the humor was gone as well. I have never been a fan of Studio Ghibli, but I was willing to give them a chance ... with this. I have to say that I have never been so let down with a book to move adaption since The Series of Unfortunate Events. I suppose I am in the minority when I say that this move isn't as good as people make it out too be.

Previously, I've reviewed another Ghibli movie where I did explain that although it was a 5/10 and that it was mostly gonna overview the fact that I didn't like it because I was the wrong audience and give some information for some likeminded individuals. It is absolutely not the same situation here because there's plenty of things wrong and to criticize.

But before that, I'll have to get this out of the way. The world looks amazing and the atmosphere set is great. As far as visuals go Ghibli delivers again a set of stunning visuals in a world where magic exists, making everything look absolutely ... incredible. There was never a dull moment visually and it was truly a sight to behold. Paired up with good sound direction that was pretty fitting and these factor into making this at least worth watching for the visuals.

But that's all the praise it will get from me.

The story attempts to create a romance between two characters, created through a juxtaposition of a girl with really low self-confidence, cursed to look like a 90 year old and a wizard who's a racially pure proud aryan, with beautiful and long blonde hair and pure pristine blue eyes, probably because this world is an alternative world 10 generations in after World War 2 was fought and the aryans had won the war. As a result of their superior genes they have unlocked the hidden capacities of their bodies and are capable to use magic. At least, that's how I chose to look at it while eagerly awaiting the plot to catch up to me.

In all seriousness, she's represented as a typical girl with typical features and he's presented as a really handsome man. Which happens to be aryan.

Their relationship is supposed to be this relationship where the guy sees through the curse and helps her cope with her low confidence and she sees how wounded and how affected he is affected by all the fighting and how it changes him, with occasional changes in their appearance to represent that.

But quite frankly their relationship makes no sense or rather, the way it's portrayed doesn't. Sophie barely spends any time with him and mostly lives in the same place as he does, but suddenly falls in love with him because plot. As a matter of fact most of Howl's action are unknown or kept hidden to the residents of the castle. And when the time they've spent is so short, I can only look at her as shallow or having a mere crush at best. While Howl simply falls in love with her because she's there, to put it bluntly. Like, Howl has a woman in his home, better fall in love with her.

Which makes their relationship feel shallow. Yes, there is a definite moment, their introduction, you can see how the spark had happened but there's nothing fueling the flame. You have no idea why they've decided to close the gap between each other and why they mean so much to each other than he's hot, she's there, which makes the relationship feel really shallow and without meaning. It's one of those relationship where you fill in the blanks with the metaphors given by the movie and your thirst for handsome princes getting together with wee lasses.

To be quite frank, most character motivations are questionable or poorly explained, or simply going against their actions. Especially the villain's. You see the villain is this old witch who has trained Howl and is trying to get him to stop using his powers, but her actions directly influence him into having to use his powers. I can't explain why without giving some of the movie's plot but when the movie ends, there's a nod to her having more control over what happens in the movie than it was let on.

Most character lack consistency in their motivations and their actions aren't anywhere near rational. I understand that it's a romantic fantasy story but that does not excuse any of it. The world looks magical but that's about it. And I wish I could've had explained more about that without spoiling the movie but the villain directly enforces Howl to be what he is and the relationship presented is shallow and what to be expected from a fantasy romance. That's about the only things I can say coherently so if you're gonna decide to watch it without giving away any plot.

If you're gonna approach Howl's Moving Castle, you're gonna watch a romantic fantasy story about two people falling in love because they are there. Don't worry, the visuals will do a good job at creating visual metaphors which will be more than enough for you to fill in the gaps of their relationship and give the events meaning. Or will they? Because when your story banks mostly on that, let me make a fake extremist and possibly offensive impression of the story real quick based on the lack of information of the world and poorly explained motivations:

"Howl's a tragic tale of the corruption of racial purity where a girl, Sophie, finds the bunker of a proud aryan after he was gentle enough and willing to belittle himself by helping her. This proud aryan is a wizard, just like many aryans that have resulted out of a good chain of racially pure breeding. Sophie then meets this witch that decides to curse her for the sake of our pure noble protagonist, Howl, by making her old and giving her a big nose, a trait jews were known for, an ethnoreligious group that was first eradicated by the proud aryans in order to save the world. As a result of this shaming, Sophie runs away from her town and joins Howl's bunker, where he hangs out after his long struggle to stop the aryans from having a meaningless war that would only kill other aryans in his bird form, inspired by amazing manga, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure where the ultimate life form, Kars, transforms into a birdman too, representing even more racial supremacy from our protagonist."

You can craft anything you want. Maybe I was wrong, this is a masterpiece.

But seriously, just because your story has fantastic elements and visual clicks to point you into the right direction there should be at least a narrative thread that makes sense, a reason for the characters to desire each other. Quite frankly there are other characters of whose motivation you can understand but this is often stumped by the course of action the movie decides to take. And the visual clicks are not gonna be interpreted or be looked at the same way by most people and you could at least keep a basic semblance of what you're trying to convey with the story rather than hope it sticks. Make us understand the characters and the events rather than make us adapt the characters and events to our understanding.

Anyway, since romance is subjective and I can't give you as many details as I wish I could without ruining your experience, I'm afraid I can't be as helpful in this movie as I wished I would've been. I just hope that this was enough for you to decide if it's the type of romance you're looking for or if you're the kind of person who values artistic presence over the storytelling. It could work for you but then again, maybe it won't.

This has to be the most disappointing anime movie I've ever seen. Considering people say this is much better than the book, I can only shudder to think how mind numbingly boring the book must have been. Studio Ghibli's and Miyazaki's prodigious talents are exhausted and wasted in trying to make this movie pseudo-bearable.

To summarize, it's the classic witch curses girl fantasy, but with some meaningless filler war and random side characters and just... ugh. It's a mess. And by no stretch of imagination a beautiful one, save for the visual appeal.

The brilliant art and the passable music do nothing to alleviate the intense ... boredom and the unease generated by the confusing, haphazard story and the annoying voice acting. Not to mention it's excessively LONG, in spite of which the characters are completely hollow and insubstantial.

If you want to pleasure your eyes with a studio ghibli production, go ahead. But do yourself a favor and lower your expectations to nil and switch your brain off.

I really can't say I enjoyed this film. For me, story points and character play a large role in my investment into a film, with the art and sound playing supporting roles.
With that being said, there was no coherency to the story. The first 15 minutes or so, I was following right along, but as soon as Sophie leaves her town, things just... happen, for no particular reason. The story progresses but there is no purpose driving the scenes. Sophie's curse must be broken now here's a series of events that lead up to that. I'll give a couple of examples of scenes that ... had no purpose as far as I could tell.
- The war in general. Who was fighting? Why? It just served as a device to move the story forward.
- Sophie's mom visiting her while she's old to tell her she got a new husband.
- The scene were Sophie steps through a door to see Howl as a child. The scene explains a bit, but the means by which it happened are dubious.

As for the characters, I enjoyed the family-like relationship that was developing, but not much else. I couldn't understand Howl's motivations or his purpose in general. He would go off and fight in the war sometimes even after telling the king's wizard lady he wouldn't. Also, I think the feelings that Sophie and Howl developed for one another were unearned. Other than their first encounter, nothing about their relationship seemed romantic at all.

Oh yeah, why is the Witch of the Waste in the movie at all after turning Sophie old. She does absolutely nothing.

She kisses everybody at the end and everything is rosy.

To sum up my complaints... Nothing was explained (character motivations or political context) and things happened only to get from point A to point B.

The art was great as usual for Studio Ghibli and the music was solid. No complaints in the art department.
Story needs to be filled in and polished and the fat should be trimmed.
OK bye

Howl's Moving Castle


I watched this movie only once in my childhood and had hardly any memory left, so I just had to watch it again. Nostalgia feeling is not present in me, therefore I could watch the film practically for the first time without being prejudiced. Unfortunately, I have to say that all the hype about this film could hardly be more wrong.

Moving Castle is a tale of how an ordinary hatmaker gets cursed, involved in a little adventure story and a war. The majority of the film turns to present various spells and concepts of her magical world, and the second half revolves around ... the war and the relationship between the two protagonists.

I must admit that the animations are beautiful, as are the visuals of many scenes. Unfortunately, there is little else for me to say about this film.

The film suffers from typical problems, too little time, too little build-up, and a weak finale. It's always the same, due to the short length.


[Story 4]

The concept of this magical world is nothing earth-shattering, even though it was beautifully presented. The world itself had little buildup and accompanying explanations, you were just thrown into it.

And the whole aspect of the war felt really "out of context". The transition to it wasn't particularly good, let alone the tension and execution.

The overall chemistry and composition of this film felt tremendously questionable and unfinished.

[Characters 5]

I liked the characters, they were likable, especially Sophie in her grandma's guise was fascinatingly accurate. But aside from sympathy and light backgrounds, there was little to mention. Many characters were just left lying around without any particular build-up or relevance, in the end, I hardly cared.

The scarecrow alone whose plot was just resolved at the end like it was a joke was... odd. What was especially odd was that it wasn't outlandish for the film.

[Animation 9/ Music 6]

The animations were beautiful and captivating, making them carry half the movie for me. The beautiful and fluid scene changes made the flow of the film better lubricated and offered a beautiful visual work of art. However, the animations were a step behind those of "Spirited Away" for me.

The music was fitting and provided satisfying background to the scenes. Personally, though, I would say that I have heard better Osts.


[Conclusion 5]

For many, this movie is an unprecedented childhood experience, but for me, it is just another movie. Since I didn't grow up watching these films, I'll have to settle for what I received here.

Howl's Moving Castle is a film that had an interesting concept, but unfortunately didn't really do much with it. If I had to call one movie "The Most Average Movie", this would be it.

[Enjoyment 5]

In my trek through the many worlds of studio Ghibli, this was a movie most intriguing from an outside perspective indeed. I've heard just about every opinion a piece of media could possibly get on Howl's Moving Castle and that kind of divisiveness is always interesting to see. What was my ultimate takeaway from it? Well, it was certainly... a thing.

(Before going on, note that I have not read the book this is based on. This is a review that judges the movie as a stand-alone piece).

It's hard to pin this one down, to be quite frank. Much like it's reputation, I'm of many minds ... about Howl's Moving Castle, at the end of the day. It was an odd mixture of elements, some good, some meh and when it was all over, I didn't quite feel like the story had gone anywhere.


The movie centers itself around the life and times of one Sophie Hatter. Once a worker at a humble hat-store, her life get's turned on it's head, when she has a chance run-in with an eccentric, yet immature Sorcerer by the name of Howl, as she becomes the target of a strong witch, whom ensorcells her, aging her body dramatically. In search of help lifting the enchantment put upon her, she winds up a housekeeper for Howl, getting involved in an ongoing war to which Howl is constantly attempted to be strongarmed.


When we boil it down to the essentials of narrative, Howl's Moving Castle has all the ingredients for a great adventure. The artistry and animation is about as good as one can expect from Studio Ghibli, it's locations feeling so very alive and the designs from characters to creatures to all the Ghibli-standard "industrial revolution" inspired machinery all looking top-notch. The characters I found very likable, our core cast having alot of time to interact off one another, Howl's strange, almost childishly moody nature being a particular highlight.

It's just that where this movie drops the ball is stringing all the elements together in an engaging way. This is the type of plot that's trying to juggle alot of elements at once, but between Sophie's personal experiences of being introduced to this world of sorcery, Howl's struggle to mature and deal with the consequences of making a deal with a demon and the ongoing war that surrounds it all, there isn't a throughline strong enough to connect all these loose elements together, leading to a very cluttered and aimless narrative.

The progression of when and how we end up from scene to scene is less driven by any one character's decisions moving it along, feeling very much like the story just comes as it goes, the characters merely reacting to it on the sideline. This might have alot to do with our focus being centered on Sophie, the clear outsider to not only the conflict of the war, but the personal story of Howl, as we are only given the glimpses into these ongoing story that she does. By the time we were at the end, it didn't feel like our heroes had so much conquered the trial and tribulations of a journey, but rather just stumbled into the resolution at random.

It can also be guilty of telling alot more than illustrating. There's this big deal the story makes of how badly sorcerers making deals with demons fuck their lives up, yet this element is quite ineptly illustrated to the audience. Our only clear look into this is Howl's deal with this sentient fire Calcifer, yet the dude is actually quite chill. Besides being a bit stubborn at times, he seems to just care for Howl's well-being and doesn't really care about whether his deal is severed. The only thing we're shown is how Howl using his power keeps driving him towards turning into a monster, yet it's connection to the danger of the deal he's involved himself with isn't very well illustrated. And in the end, Howl's arc doesn't feel very conclusive at the end. No journey of self-discovery, no internal struggle with personal demons he has to face, his problem just kinda get's solved and the problems simply go away.

And overall, with all of these elements struggling for time, not alot of them are left time to breathe. They're just about given the time they need to get filled one way or another, but none of them get in-depth enough to be engaging. The story-threads that suffer the most from this is Howl's story for the reasons I spoke of previously and the whole war-story, which feels completely flimsy with not alot of context into it. Hell, I don't even remember the opposing side of this war being named once and our only interaction with anyone from that nation is one dude we get a couple lines from at the last 5 minutes of the movie, with not so much as tangible context to the whole conflict being revealed.


Other than that, there's not much more to say about Howl's Moving Castle. On a moment-to-moment basis, there is alot of whimsical awe that it can inspire and the characters are likable enough that scenes of them just living their lives gives you that warm feeling Ghibli's particularly talented at evoking. It's just that the frame within which it's all place is very messy and unfocused, with none of the separate story-beats clashing together to make anything quite as impactful as Nausicaä or Spirited Away. It's something I'd advise everyone take a look for themselves. Whether you'll end up liking it or not, I can't guarantee (naturally), yet whatever you come out of it with, it's at least something noteworthy enough to be memorable.

I'm not sure of what to think about it. I think the story was unique but mediocre because there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. Like why was Suliman after Howl, why was the Witch of the Waste after Howl as well, I mean yeah for the heart but why? And more importantly why did the Witch curse Sophie? And why/how did the curse get lifted off of her at the end of the movie with just no difference to her hair... And why did the Witch turn into a vegetable ever since her visit from the King! I mean what the hell ... was all that about? So I'm kinda confused about what to feel about this whole thing.
The art is good and beautiful, the music and sound is also pretty good. The characters were somewhat the same throughout and I don't think that's there's any development.

Howls' Moving Castle starts off on a strong foot, doing its best to impress with a lush and imaginative world, but it all ultimately fizzles out. In some ways, this feels less like a Hayao Miyazaki film proper, and more like someone trying to ape a Miyazaki picture. All the familiar story beats and thematic haunts are there, but they're thrown in a blender, and the end result is a story that (like the eponymous moving castle) completely comes apart by the end.

At its core, Howl's Moving Castle is about two things (at least, by my reading). First, it's a story of a young girl ... coming to discover her own inner beauty and resolve through love (as represented through a witch's curse), and two, it relates the horror and heartbreak of watching war turn a loved one into a monster (also represented by a curse). These are strong elements, but Howl's Moving Castle starts throwing so many characters and turns at us that these central threads get lost in the tangle. The war is clearly, CLEARLY, meant to be evocative of the Japanese perspective in World War 2, but we quickly lose any thread of what's supposed to be going on - and then everyone decides that there shouldn't be a war because, hey, it's the end of the movie and we need to wrap things up.

The characters really get the short end of the stick from all the narrative clutter. Howl and Sophie feel more like distant, hazy sketches than fully realized beings, and everyone else is completely left by the wayside. It doesn't help that the movie keeps adding to the cast as it goes along, mostly to its detriment (the evil witch and spy dog tag along and everyone just goes with it because, hey, Spirited Away also had the somewhat antagonistic Baby and No Face join Chihiro in her journey, so it should also work here without any of the deliberate set up).

For a movie that belabors getting to its end so much, it's odd how little time it sets aside for actually concluding, ultimately culminating in one of the most slapdash finales I've seen in a while.

The animation is beautiful, the soundtrack is stirring, all the technical highlights one would expect of a Miyazaki film are here, but the final product feels desperately in need of focus. On the one hand, I doubt that Hayao Miyazaki put too much stock into Spirited Away's financial and critical acclaim, but the movie does feel like a victory lap from an artist feeling victorious, invincible, and above a second draft.

Howl's Moving Castle was originally a novel by Diana Wynn Jones. A light-hearted fantasy tale, the book executes just about every aspect of its story perfectly - the action, the mystery, the romance, the comedy - without ever losing its tone or feeling inconsistent. Though there are many fantasy authors whose overall body of work I would prefer (Terry Brooks and Brian Jacques come to mind), Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite book of all-time. And, unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the movie rendition.

To give credit where credit is due, Miyazaki brings to life the world of Howl's Moving Castle better than I could ... have expected. Everything is gorgeously animated, and the soundtrack is terrific. These are things we've come to expect from Studio Ghibli, and they deliver time and time again. Beyond this, however, I take issue with almost everything else in the film.

The story is very simple on the surface: Sophie, a hat-maker's daughter, feels resigned to a boring and uninteresting life as the middle child, destined to inherit the store while her sisters live much more exciting lives. However, the fearsome wizard Howl's castle appears near her town, and after a chance encounter with the wizard (Who does not seem to be the maiden-heart-devouring monster she heard about) Sophie comes face-to-face with the Witch of the Waste, who places her under a curse that causes her to become an old woman. She sets out then to find Howl and see if he can undo her curse. Living in Howl's Castle, she strikes a deal with his fire demon Calcifer: If she can break Calcifer's contract with Howl, Calcifer will break her curse. Of course, there is a great deal more to this story as the film progresses, but you'll have to watch to find out!

The characters feel woefully underdeveloped compared to their literary counterparts. While this is often true of films, due to the time restraints forced upon the story, in this movie it felt particularly troublesome. Barring comparisons to the novel, everyone still feels shallow and their motivations were often unclear. Sophie is the only character who really seems to develop. Howl in particular is incredibly blase, which is shocking considering how full of life his literary version was. There were many side characters whose own stories felt completely nonsensical or pointless in the movie, as key things were cut or re-purposed for time constraints. Characters' entire motivations are changed, particularly the Witch of the Waste and Howl's old teacher (who becomes an entirely different person in the film). Changes aren't necessarily bad, but in making these adjustments the film seems to lose focus and feels significantly more scattered. Ironically, this is despite cutting many narrative threads.

The story also suffers greatly. The book excels at creating subplots throughout the world-building, all of which play into the story, come to a resolution and create incredibly satisfying moments in their own right. This is not the case in the film. Really, only the main story has any kind of dynamic, and though the books' subplots (such as the Scarecrow) are present in some fashion, they really have no explanation and the conclusions come completely out of left field. Consequently, the movie really lacks in narrative punch. Miyazaki also makes radical changes to the story. In this film, a significant focus is placed on Howl's reluctance to join the war effort, something that was not particularly present in the book. Again, changes aren't necessarily a bad thing, but the changes made here all seem to work to the film's detriment. The new elements of the story are not explained particularly well, and pacing of the film also suffers drastically. Whereas the book had a steady build all the up to a thrilling climax that tied so many disparate narrative threads together, the movie jumps all over the place in terms of tension. The climax also seems to almost come out of nowhere. Watching the film for the first time, I was never sure exactly where we were in the story until it just suddenly... ended. Things just jumped around too much, and the stakes are never properly established.

I understand there are many people who very much enjoyed this film. Though I have many harsh criticisms of it, Howl's Moving Castle is not a bad film by any means. It is crafted well, with gorgeous aesthetics, but I have a hard time overlooking the significant reduction in quality of story and characters when compared to the book. If you're thinking of watching the film, I highly recommend reading the book first. The film and novel are very different works of art, but I cannot escape the thought that Miyazaki weakened the product by changing focus so much and not creating enough support for his new ideas.

Conclusion: Not bad but the book was better
*Contains minor spoilers*

The Story is 3/10

...it truly is pointless. From the beginning, we assume that the story will be about Sophie trying to lift her curse but we soon find out that that's not the case at all because that is simply her character; often choosing to avoid conflict. But then things twist and turn and become interesting, but also directionless. The plot overall shows no clear linear progression and seems more like a condensed slice of life anime than an actual film. However, I still give this a 3 as for appearing as a fun little ... slice of life anime, it was enjoyable for what it was to see the characters interact in their setting in a domestic sort of way. Especially Sophie as a grumpy old cleaning lady!

Characters are 6/10 because...

...the story isn't about character growth that connects to a bigger more complex theme either. There is actually very little character growth in the story and for the stuff that there is very shallow. Sophie suddenly starts to fall in love with Howl but we don't see that progression and how it truly deeply it affects her on a personal level. It seems her growth through the story was her gaining confidence in herself (symbolically shown through her becoming young again each time she stopped being self-conscious) but that was only shown each time she admitted her love for Howl or something along those lines (arguably sexist right there). The other characters did not experience particularly growth and were not always deep and emotionally hard-hitting but they were so funny and sarcastic and absolutely adorable.

Art 10/10 because...

...the art was simply beautiful. During this film, Miyazaki had begun to incorporate computer rendering and touch-ups for his films and it really shows in the crisp, clean and colorful shots. I didn't enjoy the story too much but as an art ho, the visuals definitely have a western European industrial revolution sort of vibe paired with a wizardry-witchcraft concept aesthetically unmatched by any previous Ghibli movie that makes you feel very warm and cheerful inside. It feels very familiar and is overall very sweet. Not to mention the way that Miyazaki animates food is just gorgeous. Furthermore, the backgrounds, particularly, are all done by hand and are extremely detailed and gorgeous to look at.

Also doesn't hurt that Sophie as a grandma had an absolutely adorable design as an old lady (I think I enjoyed her more as an old lady than young).

Sound at 10/10 because...

...the special effects and voice acting are perfect and it's interesting to hear how the English dub and the original Japanese voice actors create different tones sometimes as the Japanese sub lacked sarcasm due to cultural differences. So give the dub a try! It was surprisingly well made. Furthermore, the music is also very pleasing and matches the 19th-20th-century European aesthetic. Joe Hisaishi is a wonderful composer and creates magic in every movie he works on!

Enjoyment at 7/10 & Overall at 6/10 because...

...despite the plot, a huge and very important aspect of any film, being an absolute disaster, like the movie still has that magical Miyazaki magic, with beautiful, bright and heartwarming, scenes with often no background music, focusing on subtle movements, actions, and events that allow the viewer to slow down and really appreciate the visuals, and let them reveal subtle things about the characters and their lives.

In regards to the base material, the movie and the book actually share very little resemblance outside of the basic concept. But as someone who has read the book, I can tell you the book was much better and it didn't have the anti-war concept that Miyazaki had decided to put into the film, which allowed for so much more opportunity for the characters to interact and grow and for Sophie to figure out Howl–the primary conflict in the book. Although I can appreciate Miyazaki (and the whole of Studio Ghibli) for his famous steadfast anti-war stance in the face of criticism, it didn't actually work in his favor this time around as it got in the way of plot. I think for anyone looking at this review deciding whether they should watch it or not, do it at least once to appreciate the magical way Miyazaki makes his films and presents his scenes.

As much as I hate to say it, this really does need to be seen in theaters. The issue with a whole lot of Miyazaki's films is the massive gap in formal and narrative quality--his visuals and worlds are unparalleled, but his narratives are at best "pretty cute" and at worst distractingly stupid. This lies near the bottom of that spectrum, and it suffers greatly for it. The sense of pace is nonexistent, with the first 15 minutes covering more material than the rest of the film combined, sporadic leaps in narrative progression, near-constant unprecedented character shifts, forced love interests that add and do nothing, ... and there's not a single development or moment that feels earned or even contains any meaningful weight. And yet, I really don't care. When the lights dim and the screen turns bright, I immediately fall into Miyazaki's world. The animation becomes somehow more impressive on the big screen, with little details in each frame rising to the surface, and the overwhelming beauty of every moment covering up all the other issues I may have. The environments are absurdly diverse, yet all are fleshed out beautifully, with vibrant and unique colors populating each new setting, and the child-like wonder of each setting enveloping me. The sheer beauty and imagination astounds me and supersedes every meaningless complaint I have. Each frame pulls me deeper under Miyazaki's spell and I fall further in love with the world he's created. It's creative, it's beautiful, it's spellbinding, it's awe-inspiring, it's pure--who cares what else it is when it's already all that? I sure don't.

as someone who has not (yet?) read the book of the same name, on which the film was based, by diana wynne jones, my opinion is that the highlight of howl's moving castle is the universe it portrays, full of magic and emotion. the landscapes, the plot of the film itself contain a lot of fantasy and really make you feel immersed in that story. i can't judge with precision, for not having read the book, but the story seemed complete to me, consistent to a certain extent. anyway, even if the work had some script holes (and it does), and even if it falls ... short on some things, it has to be considered that this is an adaptation and it's not possible to include all the details of a book in a film, and i personally think that they did a great job on howl's moving castle when it comes to its construction, to the point that the film practically sustains itself as an independent story.
i was impressed mainly by the character design, which shows the personality of each one of the main characters: the young sophie's serious expression, representing her reserved but very determined and courageous nature; markle's innocent and sweet countenance, his clothes, the vibrant colors he's built on; howl's imposing but delicate, attractive appearance, showing his effort to portrait himself as a mysterious and powerful figure, but an admirable one at the same time; the somewhat despicable aspect of the witch of the waste, contrasting with her obsession with being young forever; etc. another point that contributes a lot to the illustration of the characters is the dubbing, at least in Portuguese. and this was one of the only animes that made me priorize the Brazilian dubbing, because it really is important to me, and i love it. álamo's job on this movie was fantastic. sophie's, markle's, howl's (with marcelo campos, one of my favorite voice actings of all time) voices were perfect and certainly contributed a lot to the viewer's insertion in the world of these characters.
the film also made me think about some particular things, and i could see that many fans of this work talk about this particular issue as well: the freedom that ugliness brings. howl, when he gives up his attempt to maintain a respectable and captivating image, becomes much more genuine, cheerful and affectionate. likewise, the witch of the waste, when she ends up forcibly discarding her obsession with endless beauty and prestige, shows herself to be a compassionate old lady, despite still showing some flashes of "worldly" desires, which are normal to anyone.
my disapproving concerns the end of the movie, which seemed very rushed and simple, mainly because the scarecrow ends up being in charge of solving everything overnight and ending the war all of a sudden (when, during the whole narrative, the reason behind the war was ignored by all means) and because sullivan, seeing the "family reunited", gives up without reluctance from her persecution of howl. another thing that isn’t explained very well is madame sullivan’s motivation to pursue howl and threaten him if he doesn’t enlist to help the kingdom. this could have been approached in more detail, explaining how was the previous relationship between howl and his tutor. the witch of the waste also deserved a more decent background, in a way. besides, some changes in behavior, even though they may be better explained in the book, in the film are somewhat random and meaningless, as when howl changes his attitude (i only concluded that this was because he discarded all the pressure directed to his image because of comments from people who have read the book). some other characters seem irrelevant, like madame sullivan's dog, which makes no difference in the plot, but follows the main characters anyway. the scarecrow, likewise, doesn't show his worth right away, helping sophie willingly for some inexplicable reason, until he finally "shows his importance", and it's some superficial, meaningless excuse. i can't properly judge, for now, if these were flaws in the plot of the work in its entirety or if only in the film adaptation.

in general, this is a very representative movie, in which the scenarios and the characters alone speak a lot to the viewer. but, as i've said, the movie also has a lot of problems.

EM PORTUGUÊS:
o castelo animado, ou howl's moving castle, foi um dos filmes que fez grande parte da minha infância, graças ao meu pai, e eu cultivei dele por muitos anos uma memória muito doce, lembrando do universo de sophie, howl, markle, etc como um mundo mágico que me tocava muito. já tinha me proposto a rever esse filme com um amigo em 2017, mas, por algum motivo, terminei o filme com um sentimento de vazio, como se a nostalgia tivesse antes aumentado o valor d'o castelo animado na minha cabeça. porém, esse ano (2020), em maio, resolvi rever esse filme novamente, despretensiosamente, e acabei me surpreendendo positivamente.
como alguém que não leu (ainda?) o livro homônimo, em que o filme foi baseado, da diana wynne jones, minha opinião é de que o ponto alto de howl's moving castle é o universo que ele retrata, repleto de magia e emoção. as paisagens, o enredo do filme em si representam muita fantasia e te transportam de fato para aquela história. não posso julgar com precisão, por não ter lido o livro, mas a história me pareceu completa, consistente até certo ponto. de qualquer forma, mesmo que a obra tivesse alguns furos de roteiro, e mesmo que deixe de fato a desejar em algumas questões, tem que se considerar que é uma adaptação e não é possível incluir todos os detalhes de um livro em um filme, e eu julgo que foi feito um ótimo trabalho em howl's moving castle na sua construção, ao ponto de o filme praticamente se sustentar como uma história independente.
fiquei impressionada principalmente com o design dos personagens, que mostra tão bem o que cada um é interiormente: a expressão séria da sophie jovem, representando sua natureza reservada, mas muito determinada e corajosa; o semblante inocente e doce do markle, suas roupas, as cores vibrantes que ele tem; a aparência imponente, mas delicada e atraente do howl, mostrando seu esforço de se pintar como uma figura misteriosa e poderosa, mas admirável ao mesmo tempo; o aspecto um tanto quanto desprezível da bruxa das terras abandonadas, contrastando com a sua obsessão em manter a juventude eterna no corpo; etc. outro ponto que contribui muito para a ilustração ótima dos personagens é a dublagem, pelo menos em português. e esse foi um dos únicos animes que eu fiz questão de priorizar a dublagem em português, porque realmente é importante pra mim. a versão álamo foi fantástica. a voz da sophie velha, do markle, do howl (com marcelo campos, uma das minhas dublagens preferidas de todos os tempos) foram perfeitas e com certeza contribuíram muito para a inserção do telespectador no mundo desses personagens.
o filme também me trouxe alguns pensamentos mais particulares, e pude perceber que muitos fãs da obra também falam sobre uma questão em especial: a liberdade que a feiura traz. o livramento da pressão, do peso mortífero da beleza sobre a sophie, quando se tornou velha, transformou uma jovem complexada e reprimida em uma senhora cheia de espírito e coragem de expressar suas próprias vontades. howl, quando se desfaz de sua tentativa de manter uma imagem respeitável e cativante, passa a ser muito mais genuíno, alegre e carinhoso. da mesma forma, a bruxa das terras abandonadas, quando acaba à força desistindo da sua obsessão com a beleza e o prestígio infindáveis, mostra-se uma velhinha tranquila e compassiva, apesar de ainda mostrar alguns lampejos de desejos "mundanos", normais a qualquer um.
minhas críticas são em relação ao final do filme, que parece muito rápido e simplório, no sentido de o espantalho ser encarregado de resolver tudo da noite pro dia e acabar com a guerra de repente (sendo que durante toda a narrativa o motivo por trás da guerra foi ignorado) e de a madame sullivan, ao ver a "família reunida", desiste sem relutar da sua perseguição ao howl. outra coisa que não fica muito bem demarcada é a motivação de madame sullivan em perseguir o howl e ameaçá-lo caso não se aliste para ajudar o reino. isso poderia ter sido abordado de uma forma mais completa, explicando como era a relação prévia entre o howl e sua tutora. a bruxa das terras abandonadas, por sua vez, também merecia um background mais digno, de certa forma. além disso, algumas mudanças de comportamento, por mais que talvez se expliquem melhor no livro, no filme parecem ser meio aleatórias e sem sentido, como quando o howl muda de atitude (só concluí que foi por causa do abandono da pressão direcionada à sua imagem por causa de comentários de pessoas que leram o livro). outros personagens parecem desnecessários, como o cachorro de madame sullivan, que não faz a menor diferença no enredo, mas acompanha os personagens principais mesmo assim. o espantalho, da mesma forma, não mostra sua importância logo de cara, ajudando a sophie por livre e espontânea vontade por algum motivo inexplicável, até que, quando finalmente "mostra sua importância", é de uma maneira superficial e também sem sentido. não tenho como julgar, por enquanto, se essas foram falhas do enredo da obra integralmente ou se somente da adaptação para filme.
em geral, é um filme muito representativo, em que os cenários e os personagens por si só falam muito ao telespectador, coroando grandemente uma história agradável, mas com alguns problemas.

This is one weird movie. It started out kind of boring, but by the time I saw Sophie being a sassy old grandma I was hooked. The kid, the fire, Howl and even the Witch of the Wastes were awesome characters, and the scenes of Sophie cleaning the house and doing everyday stuff were simply great. Then the plot had to kick in.

I liked this movie, but making sense out of this narrative is impossible, and it kind of misses the point to focus on that when it's always happening in the background. A washed-out war story running constantly behind the characters living their lives ... to make for a dramatic last arc is not something I can get on board with (especially when Miyazaki's forte is staying out of generic plot structure, see Spirited Away, Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service).

Making it worse is the fact that this ends with one of the most random plot twists I've ever seen. Why even bother making a story.

And yeah, it's pretty. But it's a Ghibli movie, what did you expect?

This numbers among one of the many Studio Ghibli films that I haven't seen in a long time but don't really want to re-watch on account of my poor experience with it the first time around.

As with essentially all of Ghibli's output, I have nothing but respect for the form of art itself and the talented people who made it possible. However, this is also my least favorite anime film I've ever seen.

Something about the story of this movie speaks down to me greatly. The typical mysticism of Ghibli movies is present in great quantity, but this one in particular lacks something most other Ghibli ... movies have, and that is the bizarre yet sublime storytelling tropes brought about by the very non-western depictions of magical stories.

This movie, unlike most entries in the Ghibli collection, plays its story straight from start to finish. If it were a story from any other company, I would care much less about this, but from a company like Studio Ghibli it feels disingenuous.

To be perfectly clear, they have every right to tell stories in this matter, but that brings me to my other gripe with this movie. Not only does it not have the same unique way of storytelling that makes this studio so well-respected, but its actual story is also particularly weak when compared to the company's other films. It doesn't make me want anything more than what it offers, which is unusual for Ghibli, but more importantly it doesn't make me feel satisfied at any point.

The fact that this is my least favorite Japanimation film of all time goes to show that there really aren't a lot of terrible ones that I've seen - or any, for that matter. Besides the story and the way it's presented, this movie is perfectly fine and I just don't really find it that special.