Has areas where it could have been better but is still a fantastic little film with great animation, characters and plot

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2006)

Young Sophie is a plain girl who works in a hat store. When she meets the wizard Howl on her way home she finds herself protected by him as he flees from the demons of the Witch of the Waste. Later that night the Witch visits her in the shop and casts a spell turning her into an old woman but preventing her from telling anyone. Setting out into the wilderness, Sophie comes across Howl's castle and, thanks to a cheeky fire demon, settles in as the new cleaning woman while she can try and work out how to break her curse of old age. However while she retains her young heart in an old body, she learns that Howl has long since lost his heart and the pressure of wars is taking its toll on him.
Although it is inferior to Spirited Away in some areas, I scoff at those that heavily criticise Howl for this because this film is still a lot better than a lot of the "Happy Meal marketing campaigns" that are served up to our children as films. This film has the usual Miyazaki traits of imaginative visuals, a range of characters, magic, humour and an interesting plot that is more than just easy sentiment and cliché. I agree with those that have said it is hard to follow at times because, although the main thrust of the narrative is engaging, I did find it distracting to not totally understand things like Sophie drifting between degrees of age etc. However this still served to engage me as I tried to understand the meaning of it within the plot. The theme of hearts is well used within the film and, again although I didn't understand the narrative totally, I liked the meaning within the story about the importance of the heart within each person. It touched me and although the detail will go over most children's heads, hopefully it should impact upon them to some degree. The pace is pretty good for the most part but I was a bit disappointed with the delivery at the end  it was all neatly tied up and done very quickly; the downside of this being that it does feel a bit forced and obvious in contrast with the more controlled material up to that point (Turniphead's fate is a perfect and unnecessary example of what I mean).
The animation is typically beautiful and audiences should guard against accepting this as the standard simply because it is the case so often. I loved the look of the film, from the trademark things like the European feel to the cities, to the design and beauty of the flying machines right down to the usual mix of imagination within the characters. The characters are the usual delight as well  not afraid to make them "ugly" while also drawing beauty and goodness out of their hearts. Most obviously this is seen in the character of Sophie, who is never better than when she is old  how many other children's films would be confident enough in their audience to put an old woman in the lead role? Howl is just as interesting although his transformation may be hard to follow for younger viewers. Simmons and Mortimer are both good as Sophie although Simmons dominates her younger counterpart. Bale is always good value even if he could have benefited from a slower pace to develop his character better. Crystal is a joy as Calcifer and he adds humour and spark (sorry) to his scenes. Bacall is classy presence in a good character while I liked Hutcherson's turn as Markl.
Overall this is not the perfect film because the plot is not as easy to follow as it could have been and the heart (sorry) of the story could have been delivered in a more patient and slower manner, this isn't too much of a problem (although the ending is clumsy) and the majority of the film is strong enough to cover it. The animation is flawless and the characters enjoyable while the story has plenty of interest in there to hold the interest. Has areas where it could have been better but is still a fantastic little film for the family, children or adults.