Amazing movie!

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 2014)

Howl's Moving Castle is absolutely my favorite movie, and all of it – the story, characters, animation, soundtrack – is amazingly beautiful and imaginative. The story starts out with Sophie, a shy, innocent 18 year old girl who works in her mother's hat shop. Sophie happens into the notoriously charming magician, Howl. Voiced by Christian Bale, Howl is wanted by the King to help fight during the war as Howl evades his henchmen at all costs. When Sophie gets a terrible curse placed on her by a powerful witch, she goes searching for something to break the curse and ends up working as the cleaning lady in Howl's fantastical moving castle. She learns more and more about Howl, and the terrible things he is running away from. Together, with their ragtag team of friends including the King's dog and a fire demon, they seek freedom from their individual afflictions and help save each other along the way.
The scenery has amazing detail, all the way from character's costumes, to landscape, to buildings. One of the most detailed scenes is in Howl's room, which is stocked wall to wall with imaginative magical items. The landscape scenes in the waste are also very beautiful, with deer running alongside the castle through open fields next to a lake with a gorgeous blue sky. When Howl's apprentice Markl (voiced by Josh Hutcherson) and Sophie have a picnic by a lake, the detail and artistic talent in the scene is amazing – pink and yellow flowers surround their table, the water ripples in the slight breeze over the field, there's a little island in the lake with pine trees on it, all as storm clouds roll in over the lake. The obviously talented animation department for Howl's Moving Castle is another reason why the movie is a must-see.
All major characters show awesome development as well. Sophie starts out as a very meek girl, and by the end of the movie she's really come out of her shell in a multitude of ways. Howl and Calcifer (the fire demon) also develop immensely, while battling demons both within themselves and without. Without giving too much away, I can guarantee each character is very interesting and dynamic, which just furthers the intricacies of the plot and makes you that much more invested in the story.
The soundtrack is my favorite from any movie; however, all Studio Ghibli films have awesome music. Actually, my study playlist is about 99% music from Studio Ghibli films. It's all originally composed for the movie by a full orchestra. Although almost all of the songs are purely instrumental, they tell the story just as well as if they had lyrics. My favorite song from the film is "Stroll Through The Sky", which plays when Sophie and Howl are literally strolling through the sky (who would've thought) using Howl's magic. The song is very uplifting and majestic, which matches the scene with Sophie and Howl hopping from rooftop to building spires to just waltzing above the busy street.
While this is my favorite movie, to someone who's never seen a Miyazaki film it can be very daunting I think. A lot of plot points kind of require you to just accept them as truths since these movies are so imaginative, without going into much scientific explanation. For example, it's never explained why or how there are multitudes of witches and wizards just living around normal people, or why they're so politically involved. A major part of the movie is the moving castle that Howl and the others live in, and beyond learning that it's Calcifer's magic that moves the castle, no further explanation is given to how or why the castle exists. If you're the type of person who needs an explanation for things in movies, you might want to avoid this one. If you can get past it and accept things without much information regarding those things, then you should definitely enjoy this movie, and any Miyazaki movie, really.
In case you're unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli movies, particularly those directed by legend Hayao Miyazaki, they always feature amazing scenery, both in it's actual beauty, talent, and visual complexities as well as in it's unique and imaginative details. While a lot of Studio Ghibli movies are suitable to younger watchers, they are always highly engaging for older audience members as well – all of them are complex, with intricate plots and wide ranges of human emotions and situations. Howl's Moving Castle is one of the more adult movies, not as much as say Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, but definitely more than Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro. Howl's Moving Castle definitely delivers on all fronts – creative, funny, imaginative, compelling, dark, as well as uplifting. Whether you're a seasoned Miyazaki fan, or haven't seen a single Studio Ghibli movie, I would definitely recommend Howl's Moving Castle.