Hayao Miyazaki's animated movie follow up to amazing and vivid Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away). The difference is disparagingly disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (1 March 2007)

I am going to do something that I haven't to this point done, in my IMDb history. I am going to point out a trend I have noticed on this website and possibly ridicule some of the opinions of other IMDb contributors. I do realize this is not normal and believe it may be due to the 80 hours or so I am going to complete this week at work and my lack of cranberry juice or Nutella spread for this morning's bagel breakfast spread. That is like spitting on a man ablaze. First of all, you are spitting on someone. Secondly, the ludicrously small amount of water in the spit couldn't put out a match (of course unless you are a spit marksman, in which case I apologize). And finally, you ARE spitting on someone. That is how I felt about this movie. I was actually hoping Miyazaki could help me out in my temporal predicament, as he had done many times in the past. With hopeful enthusiasm, my confidence and trust of my fellow humans deteriorated to the point of despair and disdain. I realize I should probably sleep on this topic before writing a review, but here we are.
The trend in question involves the best of the user comments. I have noticed that many of the under performing movies' (in my opinion) top listings all praise these movies. That is not that strange. What is strange is that these top listings usually are contributed by "authors" with 20 or fewer contributions (a bunch of them are in the single digits). Is this some form of gorilla marketing ? A devoted single-serving, nom de plum for Shakespeare's modern living legacy or something completely different? It is not for me to decide, but merely to point out a perceived pattern.
This movie is a clear indicator of the above patterns. It took to #11th best comment to get the first "prolific author" (only in the teens), who saw it as a disappointing 7/10 film. I would love to be that disappointed. It would make this day for me seem like drinking warm soda on a hot day. It took to the #14 best comment to get the first true prolific author, who didn't actually see this movie with the original Japanese audio. This duality, this contradiction permeates the movie and it's fans as well. For me it is hard to reconcile. Outside of my current state of being (in which case it is the proverbial straw on the posterior of a dromedary), I would have found this movie comparable to a lukewarm bath. It's not annoying or cold enough to get out, yet not hot enough to want to stay in longer or build a summer home there. With Miyazaki mediocrity is not expected, but here we are.
The world is a Victorian-like Era complete with WWI/WWII like technology powered by steam and various non-nuclear fuels. Victorian covers everything from the structures, the clothes, the technology and even the behaviors. Its turn of the century European influence is quite pronounced. At the same time it is part European and it is also part Japanese, but in more subtle ways.
A young, insecure hat maker's apprentice (Sofî) stumbles upon a magician and his situation, quite by accident while walking on the streets at night. This leads to the Witch of the Waste cursing her with old age. She seems to get older and younger over the course of the movie. I am not sure if this is due to the nature of the curse or if she is affecting the spell itself, with her emotions and thoughts. Maybe it is just a colossal film continuation blunder. I don't know. I do know it was very distracting along with Sofî herself. She then finds the wizards again (Hauru, a.k.a. Howl) and decides to hire herself as the house-keeper of his multidimensional castle. She also makes a deal with the boiler (a.k.a, Karushifâ, Calcipher ; a fire spirit holding the castle together and source of Hauru's power) to help her dispel the curse.
I had a hard time connecting with most of the characters, their motivation and the story (especially the main characters). It was an amalgamate of contradiction. It is a movie that takes its time to build up the story and characters, yet ends in a quick breeze complete with a nicely tied red satin bow. It wants to be a love story, built upon loneliness, insecurity, chance and proximity, yet expressed in the juvenile form. I felt like an adult watching a kid's movie or better yet watching an alien trying to emulate human behavior or thought, but never personally experiencing it. It felt contrived. Logical steps seems to skip, as if human motivation is a mere trite and the result is all that is important.
The animation is the only saving grave of this movie. The style, color and attention to detail is amazing. This world is alive, even though our protagonists are cardboard cut outs of real people. This world is so character shallow that wars are started and ended as simply as one would bite into a cookie. I love the idea, layout and detail of Hauru's moving residence. It is in the title of movie and deservingly so. The most memorable character of the movie would have to be Karushifâ and unfortunately his story takes a side-quest to the main story : Sofî and Hauru. The rest is cute and simplistic. It strives to be deep, yet when we examine the evidence of the inner meaning it is bare or non-existing. These "people" don't live, they just follow a life trajectory. If you like floating around through life, not interested in what is going on around you, then this movie might resonate with you. I on the other hand, would like to believe there are things and people yet to see along my path to wherever.