The book's assassination

Rating: 4/10 (18 March 2006)

I love Miyazaki's movies. In fact, I have seen most of his movies.
However, after watching "Howl's moving Castle" I was very disappointed. I thought that Miyazaki killed the book "Howl's moving castle" by making this terrible adaptation. Did Miyazaki understand the book when he read it? He simplified the story so much, and yet he made it somewhat confusing because there wasn't any explanation to why things happened in the film.
I wonder if any of the people that think the movie is so good has read the book.
First: The most pointless part of the film is the war.
Second: The film didn't explain why Sophie was cursed in the first place. There was no explanation for the pointless war either. It seemed that the story was floating around. The plot was not well developed.
Third: They changed all the characters, and their personalities.
Fourth: There were a lot of clichéd things. Miyazaki preferred to replace parts of the book that showed originality with clichéd scenes that can happen in any fantasy story.
For example: Sophie going to Howl's childhood telling him to meet her in the future. (time travel) Example 2: Sophie kisses the scarecrow, and the scarecrow becomes a human because of the kiss from his true love(Sophie).
If you thought this movie is good, you should read the book. After you read it, you might hate the movie. The book is funny, original, and full of magic. It can't be compared to the movie.