Howl no Ugoku Shiro

Howl's Moving Castle has to be the most overrated of all Miyazaki's films. While it produces legendary animation and a wonderful soundtrack, the story is dull with characters that are difficult to get attached to at all. There is very little character development and many of the characters seem absolutely useless to the plot. The relationships between the characters are also sloppily done with a rushed feeling to them, making them feel like nothing special. Also, not enough is learned about ANY of the characters' pasts and many of their actions seem inconsistent with the personalities you previously thought you knew, making it unpredictable in ... a bad, random kind of way.

Based off a novel I never read, this is continued proof that Miyazaki just fails to deliver great films when the story is not of his own writing. It is obvious that these characters are not that important to him.

I do think this is one film that wouldn't be a complete waste of time to pick up because of the incredible and colorful animation. It's excellently done and it's a shame it was wasted on such a lousy story.

It’s never a good sign when I finish a film and the first thought that pops into my head is, “What the hell was that?” Unfortunately, that’s the situation I found myself in upon completing Howl’s Moving Castle, a film which started out promising enough before proceeding to baffle and confuse me at pretty much every turn. I’m almost convinced there was some critical plot element or thematic undercurrent that I somehow missed, to the point where I wonder if I should really be writing this review without first having a second watch to make sure that my aggravated confusion is genuinely on the film’s ... shoulders and not my own lack of observational skills. Because as is, it feels alien to me that Miyazaki, the master of bringing subtle reality to the limits of imagination, could direct a movie that feels this incoherent. Sure, even the greats have their off days, but the faults of Howl’s Moving Castle are so bizarre to me that were it not for the unmistakably Ghibli design sense and character faces, it would be hard for me to even consider this a Miyazaki film, born from the same hand as the maestro of Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, Naussicaa, and so many more legitimate masterpieces that forged something real and valuable out of their fantastical cores. I’d call myself angry, but that word feels too harsh; I’m too confused to really be angry at all.

The story, for what it’s worth, takes place in a fantastical world reminiscent of turn-of-the-20th-century London. Witches and wizards are commonplace, wandering the land or setting up shop in pursuit of their individual goals; some are friendly, some are decidedly less so, but everyone’s aware of their existence as a matter of course. Perhaps the most infamous wizard of them all is Howl, a mysterious recluse with no shortage of bizarre rumors swirling around his name. He wanders the earth in his titular moving castle, which is by far the best part of the film. It’s a masterpiece of mechanical and artistic engineering, a lumbering mass of steampunk contraptions that bucks and heaves exactly as a massive, ramshackle object of its size would. If there’s a reason to see the film at all, it would be for the incredible design sense that makes this remarkable mammoth of a magical doodad come to life, and the many scenes that allow you to just soak in its gargantuan presence. In fact, the animation overall is stellar, which, yes, it’s a Ghibli film so you come to expect that, but it’s especially noticeable here for its sheer creativity. The magic wielded by the various wizards and witches we meet along the way is realized in hog-wild expressionist fever dreams, streaking through surreal tableaus that really mess with your mind and play with your perception to create instantly striking images. There are no shortage of brief snippets and frames throughout Howl’s Moving Castle that hint at a much better film, one that committed more fully to the impressionist eclecticism of its presentation and created something truly unique.

Sadly, that’s not the case, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong about Miyazaki falling back on his trademark whimsical profundity once again- it’s worked wonders in the past, after all- its implementation here feels more unfocused than it’s ever been in any of his past films. Sophie, our protagonist, is a simple girl who works at a hat shop before a chance encounter with Howl unwittingly envelops her in his personal struggles and long history of mistakes and bad choices. A jealous witch curses her to turn old, and she chases after Howl in hopes he might have some way to break the curse. But from there, I find describing the plot a near-impossible feat, as it just starts spiraling in a million different directions, none of which seem to have anything to do with each other. There’s some sort of ill-defined war going on between equally ill-defined forces, and the king is trying to conscript all the local magic-users into his army, there’s a subplot about Sophie falling in love with Howl and finding a family with his ever-growing motley crew of servants and tag-alongs, but we don’t spend enough time watching that bond grow to really get invested in it, there’s a running theme of beauty and age that spins its wheels without really going anywhere, Howl has a secret dark side wherein he might be turning into a monster, and it’s connected to something he did in his past that we’re not sure about until the last ten minutes, there are a bunch of different villains who all have a different grudge against Howl, and at some point the amount of Stuff Happening in the plot grew too unwieldy for me to keep up with, and I just sort of buckled under its weight and never really recovered.

To summarize that point a little more succinctly, this is the first Miyazaki film where I feel like the whimsy and lovable characters get buried under plot mechanics and busywork. So much time is spent adding more and more subplots and characters, yet paradoxically not much time is spent fleshing the already existing ones out, and it feels like the film’s attention is constantly bouncing back and forth with no real grounding or focus. But what really kills my ability to comprehend the plot is its shocking lack of context for anything that happens. Howl’s Moving Castle is really bad at explaining why things happen the way they do, why certain characters make the choices they do and why those choices matter, or what you’re supposed to be taking from any of this. Sophie’s curse will fade in and out at times, so she’ll occasionally switch between old and young again or end up somewhere on a sliding scale in between, but I never got why she was changing at the moments she did and what the contrast between her old and young selves was supposed to represent. There’s a villain who causes Sophie a lot of grief before suddenly becoming friends with her in the next scene they share, and then turning briefly traitor again in the finale for reasoning I didn’t get. The magic is all cool, but I never got a sense that it was grounded in any sort of consistent ethos or framework. Hell, it even feels like the characters themselves can shift drastically from scene to scene; I never got a sense of how everyone’s relationship to each other was evolving, because I never understood what events were propelling them to change in the way they did. Tons of stuff happens in this movie, but I don’t get why any of that stuff happened And the result is a constant stream of frustrations where it felt the movie was expecting me to take for granted the logic behind its world and mechanics and internal life, and all I wanted was for it to slow down, take a goddamn breather, and explain what any of its disconnected series of thoughts was supposed to mean.

There’s a comparison to be made here to Spirited Away, I think. Both of these films feature a fantastical world with a lot of wildly mystical occurrences that are never fully explained, asking you to fill in the gaps as you see fit. The difference is that Spirited Away makes me ask questions, while Howl’s Moving Castle makes me demand answers. Spirited Away’s world is so well-realized, so richly textured with just constant detail upon constant detail, that I feel I could live in it and walk around in it. It feels like a place that could theoretically exist with its own internal logic, and thus, it’s really fun to imagine what might be outside the bounds of what the film’s scope chooses to show us. How DOES the Noh-Face spirit get a voice by eating people? What WOULD lie at the end of that train ride out of the bathhouse? Where DO all these spirits go when they’re not slacking off? I don’t have the answers to any of those questions, but because of how well the film paints its world, they’re questions that I can imagine having a logical answer to, and wondering about that answer enhances the part of the world that’s shown on screen. In contrast, Howl’s Moving Castle doesn’t feel like it has an answer to any of the confusing questions it raises, and instead of making me daydream about what the explanations for some of these mysteries might be, it makes me aggravated that the movie isn’t explaining itself better and giving me something of substance to hold onto. Miyazaki at his best is able to capture a kind of mystical whimsy that frees the imagination; this, in contrast, feels like it’s severely limiting my ability to dream in the same manner.

I know this is one of the more popular Ghibli films out there, so if you’re a fan of it and have made it to the end of this review, well, first of all, thank you for your patience with a dissenting opinion, but also, let me know why this film is so special to you. I can’t imagine it got to be as popular as it was through sheer dumb luck, and I’m curious as to what everyone else sees in it that I missed. Perhaps a re-watch at some point with additional context may lead to a more positive outcome overall. But until then, Howl’s Moving Castle was a frustrating experience for me, a film that I never grasped onto yet charged ahead regardless before I ever got a chance to get in the saddle in the first place

Howl's moving castle, the creator seems to enjoy making his movie have many slice of life elements such as a family atmosphere. While that is nice when it gets too prolonged, it starts to become unnecessary filler and ruins pacing, which I believe you need a good in a film. There was no exciting moments, especially with a film like this we could see more glimpses of the world, rather than focusing too much on the characters.

The movie's storyline didn't seem to have been resolved properly as it conclusion was too rushed and there seems to be deus ex machina. Characters were weak and their ... motives and actions didn't felt well written. Overall a lackluster movie that I felt wasn't all that great.

Just like many Miyazaki works, Howl's Moving Castle is a beautiful and ambient movie. And that's as far as it goes. The 4 points I gave to it are purely for that reason - good visuals, good music. The rest, especially the story... Absolute. Mess.

I know it's not a good thing to compare the original work and its movie adaptation, but this particular case is an exception for me. If while watching you feel even for a moment that the characters/plot are confusing, the pace is hard to follow or any other story-related nuances are just somehow off - and you will definitely feel that ... - the sole reason is that the adaptation is horrible and this work was never meant to be made by Miyazaki.
The original book brought out the characters' imperfections and the story was heavily based on exploring them. Howl was a grown-up-child who liked fancy clothes and procrastinating. Sophie was an independent down-to-earth woman who would obviously have fights with him all the time. And this was the core of the story.
Don't worry, these are no spoilers for the movie because it COMPLETELY omits this important and exciting part, instead introducing a cutesy Disney-like love story with relationships between characters magically turning out great, and with 70% of the exciting plot completely cut out to the point you'd be surprised how fast everything was over. No character development or explanations of what's happening. The characters are stale and too obviously idealised.

Overall impression - boring and confusing, but pretty.
If you like cheesy magical love stories, this might be for you. But if you're looking for something well-written with hidden philosophies and deep meanings, just go read the book, this movie is completely bland.

There is no way to save this movie, its only virtue is the drawing of backgrounds, landscapes and objects, because the drawing of the characters did not even convince me, something usual in Miyazaki's works, specially in this one and in 'Kiki's Delivery Service', where the characters don't merge with the background, seem made by other people or other techniques that make people look like shiny wax within a world that does have a nice texture and much more attractive colors.

Removing this everything else is a real nonsense. The history has no interest, even if it plays with the supposed importance of its personages, that ... if princess, kings, prime ministers, soldiers of the kingdom, magicians, characters under terrible spells, witches, etc. Some "positions" that do not affect at all the depth of the plot, but without them the movie would not have so much mystique.

Nothing ever happens here, they travel to the castle, then the protagonist falls in love with Howl because... because one afternoon he helped her to reach to her cousin's shop and then ended up in his castle cleaning the living room, a romance that is below par even for a romantic story of a teenagers magazine for being too cheesy.

Then the story of the fire that keeps alive Howl, the residual witch with his heart, the scarecrow that turns out to be the prince of the kingdom next door, and what does that bring? Nothing, if the scarecrow has nothing to do in the whole film, and same with its true self, the prince of the kingdom, a kingdom that is at war with the other with the only reason that it is better to frame the film in "Turbulent times of war". The importance of Darth Vader being Luke's father is precisely because of who Darth Vader is, not because the orphan suddenly discovers that his father is still alive and is the ship's engineer.

A movie that looks like a 120 minutes American trailer: "In times of war, a young woman is involved in an adventure dominated by magic, love, royalty, a journey and companions that will make her discover the value of what each of us carries inside. An unforgettable odyssey. NYT 5 stars: Miyazaki has done it again, children and adults will enjoy this wonderful adventure, do not miss it!".

Better to watch 'Spirited Away', a masterpiece that has nothing to do with 'Howl's Moving Castle'.

Howls castle is just... there. The protagonists spent almost all the film just existing, then in the last 5 minutes deus ex machina resolves the conflict you were barely aware existed.

You'd have a more satisfying story if you put a blob of paint on the top of a wall and filmed it's decent, at least then you'd have payoff, and if you're lucky a bird might take a shit nearby.

The best character is turnip head as he doesn't speak, but suffice it to say Howls moving tumor fucks that up before the end.

Still, I am willing to give praise where it is due, howls moving ... castle has one purpose it serves admirably, if you live under a oppressive goverment regime you could hide the DvD inside a Hentai cover, so when corrupt military officers are looting the remains of your home after you got burned at the stake for not saluting fast enough one of them will suffer blue balling before being shot for watching anything other than action movies staring the dear leader.

One word; overrated.

As much as I loved the movie's story and atmosphere, the execution is horrible. It's all over the place! So many things were happening in one go, and you couldn't even process anything, because they throw major plots in one go.

I heard a few things about the novel and they're extremely important scenes in my opinion, however, they didn't add them to the movie which made many things questionable, unreasonable and funny...
For example, the character development doesn't make any sense, it goes from "haha I'm evil" to "I'm your bestie" in two minutes without any explanation like HOW???????? AM I SUPPOSED ... TO READ BETWEEN THE INVISIBLE LINES?????
Also, lord help me! I swear to god Howl's personality shifts faster than light, I seriously thought he had a split personality or a lost twin brother.
I get it's a movie so things are fast or whatever, but that's faster than Sonic and Flash combined.

Overall I wouldn't say it's a complete waste to watch; it had great animation, so maybe that's worth something, or it's just me trying to sugarcoat lol.

I still cannot believe this movie is on par with Pupa. The movie starts to deviate from the book by making Sulamin the antagonist and its becomes utter shit from there in. Sophie's voice actor was casted so wrongly and the voice acting was incredibly bad that it was hard to believe a human was voicing her. Though the animation is fluid, it's probably the only redeeming quality.

The plot was executed so poorly that even Pupa excelled at this very subject. The romance was forced down the audience's throat, and only the most pathetic people cried at the last moment which was filled to ... the brim with "MUH HOWL" and Sophie's feels.

I feel that the movie could have been better if Sophie was killed off at the very start. Not only was she boring, her whole personality was the embodiment of the word "dull". Howl was a massive retard who had a split personality and was only there to make the fan girls orgasm.

If you can't direct a movie as well as Spirited Away, please don't force yourself to churn out this almost irredeemable pile of trash known as "Howl's Moving Castle" Studio Ghlibli. It's only a good remedy for insomianiac patients.

This movie is bad. The whole experience was boring to me, the beggining seemed ok, but as the movie progressed it kept getting worse and worse. Nothing that was going on was explained, while somewhat interesting things were happening (for some people), there was no meaning behind them. The story was just pale withouth any explanation.
The characters were dumb in my opinion, not a single character had a great developmemt and their actions were just random. Not a single back story or a flashback either. It's like a slice of life with some random fantasy that doesn't make any sense. Not a single character ... was likeable, the story didn't even tell us what they are. I don't see anyone getting attached to any of the characters, except for the dog.
The art was horrible too, some people might say "oh, the art is amazing for a 2004 movie" but it really isn't. While sometimes the background will look really good, you can't forget the fact that the whole animation is CGI. It may look somewhat good to some people, but in my opinion it's not a very good CGI anime, even for it's time. For example, I liked Serial Experiments Lain's art style & animation better, even tho it was from 1999.
The soundtrack in my opinion is the only good thing in this movie. There are some really good elements, but what does a good soundtrack do for a movie with an unexplained story and dull characters.
In conclusion, I didn't enjoy this movie, because most of the time, I had no idea what was going on, the CGI was bothering me and I didn't like the characters at all, the movie didn't seem to have a goal.

Howl's Moving Castle started strong, introducing, or at least hinting towards a magical and dense setting, and then totally flopped. I honestly thought it was going to be an epic tale of war and politics told through the eyes of our nonchalant wizard Howl. And it turned out to be a cheesy romance with no depth whatsoever. The plot makes absolutely no sense. The characters are surprisingly flat. But at least it looks really pretty. I mean, there's not much more to say, it's no Spirited Away. I need to stop reviewing Miyazaki movies before he drops more on my list of favorite people. He's ... sitting at number 10 right now. I love what he did for the industry, but geez, I've only liked 1 of his movies.

Update: He already dropped off my list.

I am having a very hard time grasping why people rate this anime so high. I will admit that the beginning did intrigue me, but the moment the plot took the initial twist (about the entire story circles around) it was just a bland, simple, convenient, and confusing rushed mess.

Not the plot itself, that one even toddler can understand. But how the things are just forwarded, zero expansion on world-building and events that surround characters.

The characters themselves are as cliche and bland as you can get. Only, the reason why I didn't zero them, besides the fact I can't, is that secondary characters have more ... going on and charm, than the main ones.

And why I don't rate this outright lower, is because one thing they did right is animation and art (it is gorgeous, I won't deny it). However, everything else is just downright overrated by people who seem to hype the book itself rather than for what the movie is.

As someone who didn't read a novel, I don't know why is that but I will stand by the fact that it would be a lame excuse for the poor but beautiful execution of this movie (' you need to read to read a novel to appreciate the movie' - that shouldn't be a requirement)

Overall it does go its way to break away from traditional anime story telling shackles but it falls short on everything else

Miyazaki is NOT perfect and this movie is a demonstration of that. The reason is that Miyazaki tried to direct a story written by someone else, instead of directing something that he had written (as he always did in his best works).

Story (4/10):
"Howl no Ugoku Shiro" is one of those Ghibli movies where unfortunately despite having interesting fantasy elements these are not used and the film ends up concentrating more on boring slice of life aspects. The story is full of gaps, almost no world building, zero development of themes and a plot that when it just gets interesting, ends with a hurried ending in ... a point where the viewer had already lost total interest in the film.
Magic is never explored either, we never really know which things can and cannot be done, we never know how powerful magic is, the role of magicians in society is never explored, demons and curses are never explored, and the war never get some development. With all the interesting messages and themes that the movie could have explored, everything is thrown overboard to make boring slice of life moments with the characters being a fake family.
In conclusion the plot is wasted potential.

Enjoyment (5/10):
The elements of fantasy made me quickly interested in the movie, but as after half an hour I was already falling asleep, the pace at the beginning of the movie is very slow and very fast at the end, this makes the viewer bored at the beginning, achieving that by the time the end comes, I no longer give a damn about what happens in the movie.
To all this add that the film lacks the development of themes, messages and characters, making the whole thing even more boring.

Character (2/10):
Here, as in almost all Ghibli movies, the only decent character is the protagonist, since the others are all plot devices with legs. Even so, it's not like the protagonist gets any good development or something like that, she's a stupid one-dimensional character (She literally falls in love with Howl for stupid reasons) and she achieves all with help and luck . As in all Ghibli movies, romance is touched in a very superficial way and more as a set and plot device than as something that really adds richness to the plot.
I hate Howl, as I said, the guy is nothing more than a plot device, his personality is never explored and that is why he never gets a development. At the same time thanks to the magic never explores clearly, Howl fits perfectly to serve the plot, when the plot needs him to accomplish something to resolve a conflict, then he achieves it and when the plot needs him not to accomplish something to generate cheap tension, then he doesn't get it.
The other characters are even less explored and only serve to help the protagonist when she needs it.
In conclusion: the characters are a disaster and almost all serve to move the plot

Art (8/10) and sound (6/10):
It is sad that with such a terrible script so much money has been wasted on this, and I can imagine what it would have cost to animate the castle.
As in all Ghibli movies the animation is beautiful, fluid, detailed and the backgrounds are beautiful.
In sound the music is good and the voice acting is quite good, it is not very good but it works well.
In conclusion: great production values as always from Studio Ghibli.

Overall (4/10):
"Howl no Ugoku Shiro" is another case of money and wasted potential, if the film had a better rhythm and exploration of themes it would have been decent, but since it is not the case I consider this film bad = 4/10.

Personally I think this movie is very overrated. I've only heard good things about it and it was nice to come here and see at least a few other people agreed with me.

In terms of characters, they weren't that great. Sophie was nothing special and was very plain, and Howl isn't really as beautiful of a character as he was supposed to be. There relationship also wasn't that great, it was basically love at first sight which I can kind of let slide considering in a 2 hour movie there isn't really a lot of time to develop a relationship, but it was basically just ... Sophie looks at him, he looks at her, and they're deeply in love. There could've been some better development.

The plot also left me scratching my head wondering what happened. Nothing was really explained as well as it should have been, and I was left wondering why things were happening and what was going on. I'm sure the book explains everything in detail, but the movie didn't even make an attempt.

Overall I didn't really enjoy it. Other than the art there wasn't much I really enjoyed. The story was underdeveloped and the characters were forgettable. I'm a fan of Studio Ghibli, but this is definitely my least favourite movie by them.

You can not follow the story. Beautiful soundtrack. The animation held up well.

The story doesn't make any sense, and there's no effort to explain what is happening. You just watch events happen that seemingly correlate to nothing else in the story. Do not watch this if you have any interest in the story.

The soundtrack in this film surpasses every expectation you could ever have. The soundtrack is written by Joe Hisaishi, and orchestrated. Fits most of the scenes quite well.

The animation held up quite well. It doesn't look modern, but it was well-animated and looked quite nice. There were some inconsistencies in the animation, but ... I believe it could've had to do more with the storyline than neglect in the animation.

Overall, not worth the watch. If you care at all about a story in the film, do not waste your time. If you're watching solely for animation and soundtrack, I suppose it could be worth a watch.

I remember of had put Howl's Moving Castle as a dropped anime, but I've give a second chance for this anime because I was a lot sleepy in the day I've watched it, but dude, I actually had reason in have dropped this movie previously.

-- CONTAIN SPOILERS --

So sit down and read my all review (rage)!

Story/Plot 3/10 - Dude, the premise of this anime is so good, but so bad used, I'd actually wait for a plot twist until the end, and at least half of the things course to other way. The anime have very, yes, very fail plots and convenience of the ... same, for example: Why Sophie was turning to be young and old while the anime was developing? or why in the final, just her hair got white? or how Sophie's mother found her? or why that old fat woman has bewitched Sophie? and a lot of another questions...

Enjoyment - 3/10 - HAHAHHAHAHA, I got so angry with this movie and nothing glad or happy, I'd paused three times, thinking if I would drop it or not. The bad romance of Howl and Sophie made me angry a lot, the dialogue are a pretty shit also, imo.

Art/Sound 8/10 - But not everything of this anime is a pretty shit, I confess I did impress with the Old Sophie draw tho, of those own feature characters, Ghibli style tho, and the OST, dude, Ghibli always do movies with OST pretty awesome, It's completely to be expected

Character 4/10 - The supporting characters are way better than the main characters.
Sophie - A seamstress, hat producer who suddenly is in the love with a wizard who'd meet in a strange place, in a strange situation, while was going to a strange place for a strange way, the reason? Idk. Her personality is very weak, actually is as if she doesn't have emotional stability, sometimes is loveful (in the final, she've kissed every character hahahaha), sometimes is very upset, or very angry, what a shit character.
Howl - This kind of character is the most cliche of all movies or animes, "I'm so powerful, but at same time I feel myself so bad", it sucks!
Marco - He's part of one scene that's one of the most that gave me most rage in the movie: The city where they're is being bombful, logically, they ask to Marco doesn't open the window, so what he does? he open it! and then Sophie, the same who'd closed the window after he'd opened, open the room's door hahahah. Btw he's not important in the plot, and don't shows why he's there or what's his past.
Old fat woman - I really hate this type of character, extremely arrogant and selfish, and I don't have any ideia because Sophie has let she enter in the Castle, btw was such funny, weird and shameful whe she was trying to climb up the stairs
Espantalho - He's like a "crutch" of the anime, always that the troupe of goofy is in trouble, he's in there with something to resolve the issue.
Calcifer - The best character of the anime, is the comic relief, and the same time, the only char who really have a responsability on the anime

Conclusion - This is the worse Ghibli Studio movie I've seen so far, I still don't understanding why it have a 8.74 score

I've watched many Miyazaki movies, but this is the first time I've seen such a bad one. When I looked at how much the anime was loved, I was really expecting a masterpiece, but it was the opposite. The World introduced in the anime is truly amazing, but very poorly rendered. I also think it looks great visually.

The characters are a disappointment. The relationships between the characters are very simple and rushed. The story was pretty weak. Some of the decisions the characters made were really ridiculous. While watching the plot progress in a strange way, there were many scenes where I asked why it ... was going like this.

But if there's one thing we should congratulate, it's that the anime is artistically successful.

OVERALL : 4

This is perhaps the most over-hyped, over-rated movie I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The characters are neither charming nor memorable. The plot is confusing and lacks any depth. Character motivations are never explained. I am left with countless questions/ The romance itself is extremely rushed and shallow. The only redeeming qualities are the art, aesthetics, and music. As well as the fire character Calcifire. He was actually kind of fun. But even that classic Studio Ghibli style is not enough to make me enjoy the film. Maybe a small child would enjoy this movie? But certainly not a rational intelligent adult. 1/10