Well, I bought the film when it came out . . . mainly curious about whether this film was good or not.

Heck, I really wanted to see if it was a good film to follow the success of Miyazaki's Oscar-winning film, Spirited Away.

In my opinion, I thought Howl's Moving Castle was a whimsy of a film. Sophie was a bland character . . . as a girl. Truely, Cursed Sophie was a . . . well-developed and enjoyable character to watch; she made the movie worth watching really. Howl . . . well, he's the basic pretty boy (yeah, a pretty boy with secrets and a moving castle), but he was okay too, but not the best. The other characters were also interesting to watch, but the main ones took the cake.

I watched the English dub of it, which (not surprisingly) was very good. The music was quite beautiful . . . it's what you would be expecting from a Miyazaki masterpiece. The animation was smooth and the typical style of Miyazaki's previous works . . . and it was enjoyable. And the backgrounds . . . . ah, the backgrounds were so pretty and detailed!

Unfortunately, the story plot confused me at one point (hence the 3.5). I seemed to not understand some things that were going on at points (if I said them, it would spoil some things for you), but I think a second watch would help clear things up for me.

In other words: Watch this film! Sure, it's no Spirited Away, but it has the magic, the interesting characters, and . . . it's Miyazaki! Sure, the story is slow at points, but believe me, it's worth about two hours of your time!

3.5 stars!

Wellll, first and foremost, I must say I wasn't surprised by not being enthusiastic about the film. I can understand how stressful it must be to create a high caliber film like Spirited Away, and then be expected to follow up with another one of similar quality, almost entirely because of your name.

Secondly, let's mention the book. The title sounds awesome, and the back cover read interestingly enough, but the book itself was bland. There were so many 'GOOD,' if not awesome ways the story could have gone, but (I'm reminded of The Black Cauldron,) it spun out in every way to make it sound like a fanfic that stops dead at every point for something potentially interesting. This was the first indication that the film made me shrug uncomfortably whenever I heard of it. Fortunately, the movie's different, and actually better, BUT there would have to be little to no similarities between the book, aside from the castle's magic and the characters, to make the movie great. One more thing, his name's Howl-- I was sort of hoping he could turn into a black wolf or something, but alas! dissapointed once again!

With that said, it really feels like this movie was trying to--I'll say, accomplish, too many things. It was very much a discreet riot, with all the ways the plot--I won't say twisted, that sounds too aggressive... okay, meandered along. For some reason this flick reminds me of mowing a lawn, and I can't quite figure out why. Maybe it's the loud, redundant noises, along with a required slow pace.

Ahem- anyway, it almost seems like Miyazaki lost ten points in his filming experience. In fact, his presence is disturbingly absent throughout the movie. I read a review that said, 'breathtaking animation.' He should have said, breathtaking backgrounds, because that's all that was really eye candy. The typical Ghibli style appeared recycled, and at times, out dated. I can actually picture a tired Miyazaki handing a few written and spoken ideas to some animators, and then sort of being a ghost around the rest of the studio. I don't say this to be insulting, but that's just what I'm saying. It felt like Miyazaki was hardly there. Speaking of recycling, am I the only one that notices that the young Howl very much resembles Haku, seemingly 'spirited away' himself into another era?
*Sigh* I guess I will say it's worth a rent...

I was sincerely tempted to just come home tonight and write my review for Howl's Moving Castle as:

What the heck?!

I had heard reviews prior to going that Howl was a bad dub and that the narrative was disjointed, but I still sort of figured... "meh, it's a Miyazaki film. How bad could it be?"

The odd thing is that it's not really a *bad* movie... one of the guys I went with said "Strangely I don't feel like I wasted my money"... the movie is quite entertaining and, of course, visually stunning... it just kinda wanders all over the place, picking up weird characters and interesting plot points along the way... and not really doing a whole lot with them.

The movie carries itself reasonably well in the first three quarters... although I definitely found 'Grandma' Sophie to be much more entertaining than her younger self. There's also this sort of "Beauty and the Beast" meets "Spirited Away" romance to Sophie and Howl... although I get the sense that more was being conveyed in that than I was really picking up.

One thing I found extremely distracting--particularly as an animator--is that Sophie seems to morph ages throughout the film... sometimes she's a hunched over old woman, sometimes she's a spry old woman, and sometimes she's barely old at all... initially it was so subtle that I almost thought it was a character consistency mistake on the part of the animators... particularly since none of the other characters commented on it... but that didn't make any sense given the quality in the rest of the film. It wasn't until about three quarters of the way through that I understood the wobbling of Sophie's appearance was intentional.

Unfortunately the three quarter mark is also the point where the story gets REALLY unglued. I mention this now because you go through the first part thinking "okay, this is strange but it's kinda entertaining"... but in the last quarter you get smacked upside the head by the "what the heck?!" factor.

I talked a bunch of people into joining me tonight to see it, but now that I have seen it I don't know if I'd actually put it on my recommended list. After all, Miyazaki has so many other much better films.

It seems that the lower my expectations are going into a movie, the more I like it...and conversely, the movies I have the highest expectations for tend to disappoint. I expected wonders from Miyazaki, but got a film which, though pretty marvelous, can't quite stand on the same footing with Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa.

Since I am always a bit obnoxious about books based on movies, I have to say that in relating the book to this film: I can't actually tell. I read the book a couple of years ago and enjoyed it immensely, but have not reread it since. I recognized many characters and situations, but have no clue what of the new material was simply forgotten by me. Though it's probably a safe bet that Miyazaki added the big, ugly airships. :P

My problems with the film are:

1. The narrative is uneven and disjointed. Subplots are started and go nowhere. There are long, slow gaps between actual action, and many scenes which could have easily been cut without doing any damage to the film's story.

2. Confusing. I usually laugh at people who say this about Miyazaki's films (having had no problem understanding the others) but what was the deal with Howl's problem about turning into a bird? I mean, first Calcifer warns he might not be able to turn back, then he becomes some sort of feathery monster--unless that was entirely a dream sequence, and why would Sophie be dreaming that?--then the whole subplot just sort of vanishes and he seems to have no problem changing back and forth. As for Turnip Head, who enchanted him and why? Was a gaping hole left in the translation, or was it never explained? (You'd think it would be important enough to matter!) And Sophie's changing appearance--was the spell wearing off? Was it supposed to be related to her self-image? Were the visual changes the reflection of peoples' ability to see through the enchantment? Did it actually go away at the end or not? And why did the Witch of the Waste want Howl's heart? Why did he lose it in the way that was shown in the first place? Considering Howl's personality (he seemed to act mostly as if he were either on uppers or crashing after they wore off) it's hard to think that he'd give up his soul for the power of controlling a demon. The character isn't dark enough for it.

3. Spirited away deja vu. My first thought after "Wow, that's a cool castle" was "I can hear they got the same soundtrack composer." Was it just me, or did Turnip Head evoke images of No-Face and the hopping lamp in the swamp? Howl the magician/bird vs Haku the magician/flying dragon. Too many things just had the same feel as Spirited Away for me, without the important things which made SA remarkable. It's hard to explain, exactly.

4. Bad romance. So, how did Sophie and Howl fall in love, anyway? When did they get to know each other? If memory serves, she spent most of the movie picking up after him. Did they ever have an actual conversation?

5. Too-too happy-happy ending. All of a sudden, everything's perfect. No villain. No penalties or loss. Sophie has two 'true Loves' but the one she didn't choose says, "Oh, well, guess I'll go put an end to the war and not worry about it. Toodles!" The Witch of the Waste is an old granny turned even more cuddly than Yubaba. Come on, already!

Now, with all that whingeing, you'd think I'd have given it a lower score. But the fact is--it's Miyazaki! It's visually delightful (even occasionally spectacular) and full of charming characters and unexpected situations. As one-dimensional as I found Howl, Sophie was terrific, Marko was enjoyable, and Calcifer was pretty amusing (though his voice was just a bit too reminescent of Hades in Hercules.) Watch it, if you can!

I've seen this movie twice because I loved it so much. I truly fell under Howl's spell.

This is an amazing visual fairy tale. The graphics are breathtakingly beautiful, the story, strange, romantic and magical.