"Look at that. They call this a castle?"

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2017)

The word that popped into my head to best describe this film was 'charming'. I've never considered a movie charming before, so I'd have to say this one had an impact on me. The story was a uniquely creative one and the animation art wasn't as off-putting as some anime can be.
As Sophie went through her various age related metamorphisms, I tried to keep track to see if there was a common denominator for becoming young again after the Witch of the Waste cast her spell. It occurred when she fell asleep, but after that it was hard to distinguish any common elements responsible for the change. Maybe it was an aspect of her mood at the time?
I have to admit, there were times in the second half of the story when things were getting a bit difficult to follow, where cause and effect didn't seem to have any connection to each other. The one thing that occurred in the story that caused some concern was when Sophie threw the bucket of water on the old Witch, summoning up a reference to Dorothy defeating the Wicked Witch of the West. That coincidence I think detracted from the story's originality a bit.
But otherwise I came away feeling good about the picture. I've seen a few other works by director Miyazaki, among them "Princess Mononoke". That one too was somewhat complex in trying to understand and I don't pretend to 'get' all of what he was trying to say, but he makes up for it to large degree with interesting characters and a very nice palette that's pleasing to the eye. I just recently happened to view the movie that beat this one out for Best Animated Feature, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", and for my money, this one appealed to me a whole lot better.