Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

(Originally released as Hauru No Ugoku Shiro)

Starring the voices of: Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crystal

First, the Lowdown: A young girl is put under a curse when she is caught up in the intrigues of rival wizards.

Sophie is a shy an unassuming girl who works at her late father’s hat shop in Ingary. In spite of the pleas from her sister to leave to shop and make a life of her own, Sophie is quite content to work there and does not see how she could make it in the outside world. While returning to her own shop, however, Sophie is harassed by two unruly soldiers in an alley. Before they have a chance to elucidate their intentions with the girl, they are interrupted by the presence of a dashing young man, who with a wave of his hand forces the soldiers to marching away against their will. Sophie is immediately taken by the magician, as he sweeps her back home.

As she closes her hat shop, a richly dressed but vainly obese woman enters through the door. Sophie gently tells the woman that her shop is closed, but offers to help her quickly. However, the older woman sniffs at how tacky and common the items are and pretends to not care whether the shop is open or not. Not liking her (or her shop) to be insulted, Sophie demands the woman leave, which she does so by passing through the girl. The woman (who calls herself the Witch of the Wastes) informs Sophie that the best thing about the cursed placed on the young girl is that she can’t tell anyone about it. As Sophie stands puzzled as to what the mysterious woman meant, she realizes that she has been transformed into a 90 year old woman.

Realizing that not only will no one recognize her for who she is, nor will the curse allow Sophie to tell anyone about her predicament, Sophie runs away to the surrounding wastelands to see if she can find a cure for her curse. While walking, she happens upon a scarecrow lying in some bushes. After uprighting it, she asks aloud if there is a walking stick anywhere around. Amazingly, the animated scarecrow bounces off and finds one for her just as it begins to rain. Knowing an enchanted creature when she sees it, Sophie asks for it to find shelter. Soon enough, shelter arrives in the form of a magical walking castle heading directly toward her.

This movie was a somewhat frustrating experience for me. Hayao Miyazaki finally achieved international fame with the success of both Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, so when Moving Castle was announced, I was eagerly anticipating it. Visually, the movie is still no less than stunning - the characters inhabit a quasi-Victorian/Jules Verne land where parlor magic is as common as steam-powered airplanes. And thematically, the story starts out somewhat identifiable: where Spirited Away has been called Miyazaki’s Alice In Wonderland, Moving Castle is more akin to The Wizard of Oz (with a scarecrow character, no less.).

That being said, the film suffers from what Joe Bob Briggs refers to as “too much plot for the movie”. The characters are given elaborate backgrounds, and an interesting setup for conflict, but once we get even a smidgeon past that threshold we’re flung immediately forward without pause for resolution until the very end. Miyazaki took over this project after a different director stepped down from it, and it shows signs of that everywhere. Ultimately the film feels like a stemware set designed by Dale Chihuly – extremely beautiful and ornate, as long as you’re only going to be satisfied with merely looking at it.

Line of the Movie: “The nice thing about being old is you've got nothing much to lose.”

Three and a half stars. Once more, with feeling.