Beautifully done, though a bit unfocused

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2005)

I saw the Japanese subtitled version, and must concur in the praise given to the Japanese actors, particularly the guy doing Calcifer.
I enjoyed this. This is the first Miyazaki movie I've ever seen (and one of the few animes) and I thought it was really beautifully done, with a pervasive sense of place and a nice sense of "magical logic"(meaning a sense that the supernatural things one sees make a kind of sense, follow a kind of rule, even if it's not clear immediately what that is.) Movie suffers a bit from being thematically all over the place, from "age is a state of mind" to "make the best of the hand you're dealt" to a general distrust of power to what eventually becomes a kind of antiwar message. On the other hand, there is an utterly fantastic moment toward the end of the picture (where Sophie stumbles through a door and sees the young Howl make a bargain with the demon) which sent a real chill up my spine: it's the kind of thing you go to the movies to see. Recommended.