Howl's Moving Castle Review

Rating: 8/10 (24 August 2010)

There have been a lot of anime movies that I really enjoy watching, although hardly any of them attract any sort of attention. It's a shame, because one particular anime studio, Studio Ghibli, has been responsible for some of the biggest masterpieces in Japanese cinema to date, such as My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and the first ever anime film to receive an Oscar, Spirited Away. Now we have Howl's Moving Castle, a steampunk fantasy film based rather loosely on the British adult fantasy novel of the same name. The main plot is about a girl who offends a sorceress known as the witch of the waste, and as a result, gets transformed into an old woman. She seeks refuge in a giant frog/chicken-like structure which is the castle of a mysterious sorcerer known as Howl. There are some pretty odd elements in the whole film, such as Howl himself being able to transform into a giant bird, a door which leads to one of four completely different places depending on the twist of a coloured knob, a plucky fire demon who powers the whole castle (Who, by the way, has the voice of legendary American comedian, Billy Crystal), and something of a rarity for fictional structures, the fact that the entire castle is smaller on the inside than it is on the outside (As opposed to stuff like the TARDIS and the Narnia Wardrobe). Overall, this movie is a really captivating, immersive, moving (It moved me to tears at one point, I can tell you!) and sometimes quite funny (Especially that rather bored little dog!) roller-coaster ride of a fantasy film that really deserves more than it already has received at the box office. OK, so The Matrix still remains my favourite movie of all time, but Howl's Moving Castle just manages to scratch Neo's undercarriage (Eww!) since it's almost as amazing. Watch. This. Movie. Now.