An enjoyable film

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2008)

In an alternate world where magic is taken granted, a young woman named Sophie Hatter, lives a quiet life. While her sister gets all the attention in the world, Sophie has accepted a far less visible role as a silent woman who works in the back room of her family shop. Then one day, by a misunderstanding, Sophie angers a powerful Witch of the Waste, who transforms Sophie to an old woman. Sophie starts to look for a possible cure for the spell and ends up working in a moving castle, run by Howl, a young sorcerer with a questionable reputation. How will a headstrong young/old woman who has finally started to come out of her shell manage with a vain and self-centered sorcerer, who might be her only hope?
"Howl's Moving Castle" (Hauru no ugoku shiro, 2004) is loosely based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel of the same name. Those who have read the book, especially if they loved it, should prepare themselves that although settings and the characters are mostly the same, the movie does not follow book from word to word, but makes its own version of the same situation. There are some rather notable changes; like that Howl's young student is much younger in the film than he was in the book. However, the themes of the book are present in the film, as well as characters have retained their personalities mostly. Wynne Jones herself gave the film her blessing and enjoyed it, so I guess there is no harm done.
Technically the film is once again a delight from maestro Hayao Miyazaki, though it doesn't reach the heights of his previous works. The many details of the alternative, very European looking, world and the moving castle itself (which gives the feeling that it will fall to pieces any given moment) are amazing to watch. Joe Hisaishi also delivers once again a beautiful score to the film, also very European sounding. From the voice acting department I can only comment on the great original Japanese ones, though I've heard that the English dub is not too bad either. Biggest difference would probably be that in Japanese audio Sophie only has one voice actress, whereas in English dub her young and old self are voiced by two different women.
After such amazing masterpieces as "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle" is a slight step back in Miyazaki's career. However, it certainly is not a bad film and easily outshines majority of western animations of the past five years. A recommendable film.