Its Zen and beautiful

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2005)

Hayao Miyazaki does not disappoint us with this visual masterpiece. Howl's Moving Castle is both an opulent feast for the eyes as well as a cleansing tale of good vs evil for the soul. But unlike in JRR Tolkien, where the line between good and bad is thick and easy to discern, in Howl's Moving Castle the good hearted characters can be threatening demons and the forces of ill will can be sympathetic figures of love and woe. It is distinctly non-Christian at it's core. I found this refreshing and frankly more like the inner workings of my own self, where the hero within must find the good and accept the bad in the same grasp. As far as art goes the film is stunning. I missed Miyazaki's wonderful relationship with food that was in Spirited Away (I loved how every character in that film was moved by tiny plates and giant piles of odd looking treats). This was missing in Howl's Moving Castle, replaced more by an obsession with architecture. But Miyazaki's brilliant mix of crumbling rot and bloom flowers was all there. Gorgeous vistas and quaint villages blend together with filth and decay so that they are all beautiful (as does good and evil blend so they are all as they should be). This is not my favorite of his films but it is an absolute must see for anyone who loves moving paintings and fairy tales bordering on the surreal.