Howl's Moving Castle

Rating: 4/10 (30 August 2011)

From Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), I had seen the DVD cover for this Japanese cartoon film a number of times, and being a fan of the previous films the studio made I had to see it. Basically young Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is the innocent girl who works in her late father's hat shop, and after a chance encounter with the magician Howl (Christian Bale), famous for his moving castle, she is cursed by the Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall). The witch turn Sophie into an elderly woman, to become Grandma Sophie (Jean Simmons), and trapped in this body she tries to find a way to reverse it, but more than that to seek her fortune inside the Moving Castle. There she meets and befriends Calcifer (Billy Crystal) the fire demon, he powers the castle and recognises that she is cursed and helps however he can to help her get by. But he also makes a deal with her, if she breaks the contract she is under with Howl, whatever that is, then he has the power to lift her curse and she will go back to her eighteen year old self. I will be honest, this is pretty much the only story I can understand, the rest of it is really complicated, and just see the characters muddling about, helping each other in whatever is going on, and Sophie goes backwards and forwards sometimes with her age state. Also starring Blythe Danner as Madame Suliman, Josh Hutcherson as Markl, Jena Malone as Lettie, Crispin Freeman as Prince Turnip, Mark Silverman as King, Mari Devon as Honey and Liliana Mumy as Madge. I can certainly agree with the critics that the makers seem to have concentrated more on the spectacle than creating a story that you can follow and not get confused with, which is exactly what I found it does, but of course the animation is fantastically imaginative, overall it is not a terrible animated fantasy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Okay!