Great settings, colours, landscapes and character progression.

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2014)

Having read the book of the same name when I was younger, it really had a huge impact on me; Diana Wynne Jones is probably my favourite childhood author. And Howl's Moving Castle was– still is one of my favourite books from her and having read it more times than I can remember, my imagination has come up with a different way to visualize the story. So as the film is really different, it did not really affect the way I imagined the book to be. That being said, though I am a huge fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki (director and screenplay), I feel that they should have stuck to the book more instead of creating a totally different world.
As characteristic of a Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki film, there are lots of expressionistic scenes as well as underlying messages. It has the feel of World War II and Nazi Germany, which could very well be what Miyazaki was going for (Sophie's town was based off a street in France) plus there was an actual war going on in the film. Some aspects too reminded me of Paprika a very expressionistic, confusing and intriguing film, which to this day, I have no idea what is about. This goes for Howl's Moving Castle, though not to the extent of Paprika. There are just some scenes or details in this film that I don't get the relevance to.
The character progression was well done, in that we could see the characters growing and maturing, as well as forming stronger bonds between each other. There were points in the film that seemed to slow down but it made it up with the fantastic visuals. The colours and everything were really stimulating and well defined.
I remember finding it weird that the book was made into a film by Studio Ghibli because the author is UK based and then I found it even more shocking when I heard that Disney bought over Studio Ghibli. Actually I just found that out. In 2014. How slow am I? Anyway, I just hope they don't destroy the Ghibli reputation and become all Disney like.
Read more of my movie reviews at championangels.wordpress.com