Nothing like the book, but enjoyable.

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2009)

This movie was beautiful, but I expected better of Miyazaki-sama. Howl's moving castle is my favorite book and I was jazzed about this movie, but as I watched it I realized that this was a story that I had not heard before. By all means, go watch it. It is wonderful. But fans of the book, beware. This is Miyazaki's story, not that of Diana Wynne Jones.
As a Miyazaki movie, I felt that this one was an interesting change from his usual style of fantasy. Like the others, there are strong elements of steampunk and witchcraft, which I loved, but this was a much softer fantasy than the rest. While his other movies were fireworks displays, this one was a field of flowers.