Howl's Moving Castle

***Howl's Moving Castle*** (Japanese: ハウルの動く城 Hepburn: *Hauru no Ugoku Shiro*) is a 2004 Japanese animated adventure fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is loosely based on the 1986 novel of the same name by British author Diana Wynne Jones. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. The Japanese voice cast featured Chieko Baisho and Takuya Kimura, while the version dubbed in English starred Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Lauren Bacall and Christian Bale.

## Plot

Sophie has had an uneventful life in her family's hat shop ever since the passing of her late father. But an encounter with a young wizard named Howl, who lives in a magically powered moving castle, changed her life forever. But the evil Witch of the Waste takes issue with their eventful encounter and casts a spell on Sophie, which ages her prematurely to a 90-year-old woman. Now, Howl must use all his magical talents to try to break the spell put in the place on Sophie by the Witch of the Waste, all the while evading the pursuits of the royal sorceress Madame Suliman who seeks to strip of him of his powers for refusing to take part in a devastating war between two unnamed nations.

## Why It Can Stop the War

1. Great voice acting in both the original Japanese version and the English dub (as is the case with the *Studio Ghibli* films, even someone of the weaker ones).
2. The story is interesting, quirky, fast-paced, fun, and epic. As the story in it of itself has elements of many different film genres, from an emotional war drama to a charming romance story to a fantasy-pack fantasy adventure.
3. Excellent animation, which greatly improves from older Studio Ghibli movies.
4. In this world of magic, the world actually reflects our world and the politics that we live in. Some wizards are selfish and only care for themselves, and some are kind and help the greater good. This helps to give the story a bit of realism and relatability.
5. Appealing character designs. Such as with Howl, Sophie, Calcifer, and Madam Suliman.
6. The backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, vivid, and detailed. They make every already beautiful scene in the film (due to the film's incredible animation and lovely color palette) pop out all the more.
7. Both of our lead characters, Sophie and Howl, are interesting, likable, entertaining, and have great on screen chemistry with each other.
8. Good soundtrack, as to be expected from films coming from *Studio Ghibli*.
9. The world in this movie is spectacular. Not only the juxtaposition between the normal world with the wizard world, but also the whole look of the movie. It's a nice 19th century period piece mixed with a lot of steam punk machinery.
10. Enjoyable action scenes.
11. The best part of the movie is its hidden themes. Hayao Miyazaki was disgusted by the United States' participation in the Iraq War in 2003, so he put a lot of subtext about it in the film.

## Bad Qualities

1. Howl can be an inconsistent character at times, as likable as he is. And the romance between him and Sophie is arguably being hammered-in.
	* Speaking of which, the film's main villain, Madam Suliman, is rather poorly developed due to how many of her motives don't make much sense.
2. They're are several plot holes revolving around Sophie's curse and Calcifer being the one to have Howl's heart after it was separated from his body.
3. The pacing is rather inconsistent due to how quickly the movie often shifts from being a romance to a war film to a fantasy adventure.

## Trivia

1. Hayao Miyazaki actually thought that Howl's Moving Castle would do poorly in the United States due to the negative subtext about the Iraq War, but it actually ended up becoming one of the best grossing and one of the most popular Studio Ghibli films in the U.S.

## Reception

**Howl's Moving Castle** has a 87% critic rating and a 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 4.1/5 on Letterboxd, a 8.2/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), a 84.64% community approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4.5/5 on Anime Planet.