Howl's Moving Castle

Publisher
Optimum
Director
Hayao Miyazaki
Production
Studio Ghibli
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
115 mins
Year
2005

Howl’s Moving Castle

By David Rasmussen
2nd Apr 06

It goes without saying that I don’t need to tell you what this movie is.
Went to the big dance over at the Kodak, and missed out when the floor went to a weird inventor and his knitting capable dog, but there isn’t a person who doesn’t know the magic of Hayao Miyazaki.
The latest, and the greatest, Howl’s Moving Castle is the latest in the many many movies of the Miyazaki legacy. But how does it fare, and how will you like it? Let’s find out.

Sophie is having a bad day.
It isn’t enough that she’s a stick in the mud who doesn’t mind spending her life stuck in a hat shop once run by her father, she has just been transformed into an old woman after having a meet with a crazed old witch known as the Witch of the Waste… after running into Howl (the man known at the Batman aka Christian Bale) and fleeing from dark shadowy creatures that resemble No Face in a sense from Spirited Away.
Speaking of resemblances from Spirited Away that’s exactly what Sophie resembles when she becomes old, that old witch from Spirited Away (if she was, you know, normal sized face wise)… the Witch of the Waste must be a fan of that movie.

Now believe it or not but it looks like the Witch of the Waste may have been Sophie’s fairy godmother in disguise… eh? How so? Well for one thing Sophie actually LEAVES TOWN and gets the heck out of her usual rutt of the bored sullen life she used to lead! So, in a sense becoming old kind of made her young since she was like an old woman while she was young!

Anyway she goes out to look for her younger self and ends up finding… well.. Herself! Her true self.
Also with the help of an animated scarecrow she ends up finding Howl’s Moving Castle pretty fast, which is kind of a misrepresent since it’s more like Howl’s Mobile Fortress than a Moving Castle… he must have gotten a good deal on it from the Orange Star army from Advance Wars.
Anyway since she can’t come out and say what’s wrong with her (because of the curse that aged her) she ends up becoming Super Nanny of Howl’s Moving Castle… only without the dangerously psychotic children, or the evil parents, or the x episode TV contract with FOX. This way she ends up getting to know Howl and his fellow inhabitants of his castle better, and gets to know herself better (by “finding” herself).

Speaking of war, you might have noticed as you watched the movie that the world of Howl’s Moving Castle seems to be a world at awkward war! Shadowy creatures walk the land, a sense of foreboding fills the air… and every other day somebody throws a military parade! Uh… right. At least war had a dark taint to it in Porco Rosso, but this movie -- uh -- weird the way war is so damn patriotic in this movie… why?
Anyway the royalties are out doing the freeagency recruiting thing amongst the witches and wizards and Howl is one of those who is on the recruitment list by all the “heavy hitters”.
How I don’t know since he likes to room with a talkative fire demon, a “kid” with an attitude, a turnip headed scarecrow that keeps popping up and a lot of magic doors that lead to many locales in the world (which means free agency “recruitments” from at least two palaces)… including a black door that only Howl knows where it leads… well, he’s in demand, even if he has… issues that make him abit… deranged.

Anyway if it was just about Sophie and her awakening this movie would have been a winner.
However, as the movie progresses, the war spoken about in the first half breaks out and suddenly countries are fighting it out with each other which, inevitably, drops into Sophie’s quiet self discovery.
However the war is not like the war fought in Mononoke Hime (the war between nature and human progress), it is a seemingly pointless war that doesn’t do anything for the story of the movie (or anything else as a matter of fact)!

Now the good and bad of the movie.
The movie is good as good can be since it’s another good work of Hayao Miyazaki.
Not just saying it because we’re all fans of Miyazaki’s works or anything, but it’s damn good because it’s damn good. Approving of it here… but that’s just me.

Now the failings.
The movie has a weird “war” theme. All this we’re going to war here, we’re gearing up for war, let’s march the armies about and have a parade… then things get dark and violent and entirely messy with senseless violence, betrayals, patriotic fervor and so forth… yeah, maybe it’s the time of year (with this whole war on terror thing going on) but the war themes of the movie may have been it’s death kneel at the Academy.
Why? Uh… I don’t know. The Academy had to stare at Syriana (the movie from George Clooney) and a fistful of war themed short documentaries… and they had to do this last year too, what with Hotel Rwanda and so forth… so think they’re sick of war themes in movies yet over in the Academy? I think so.
Anyway an overdosage of patriotic fervor, war propaganda, and other things of war gone wrong may have been like Academic poison to voters who just wouldn’t grasp that very well… oh, and it might also bring snarls and grimaces from people who were not fans of Miyazaki’s Mononoke Hime.

Then there’s the thing about Howl. For all his perfections he seems to have such a screwy personality problem, which makes him such a damn drama queen (what the hell)!
Oh, and yeah… having Howl sound like Batman/Bruce Wayne did kind of -- uh -- well, whatever.
Otherwise the movie is solid, and worth owning. The breakdown will merit that out for you.

Howl’s Moving Castle Breakdown
What’s Hot?
Miyazaki’s latest work is here on DVD and it is a good solid movie. Yes, it does have a few failings but still it’s a good view. Fans of Miyazaki’s work should check it out and add it to their collection along with the other releases (My Neighbor Totoro, Whispers of the Heart (the one and only movie by the man who would have been Miyazaki’s prodigy and heir to his vision before his untimely death soon after the movie released) and the rumored release of Only Yesterday).
The works of Miyazaki is a beautiful thing to behold, and a beautiful thing to own… so own it!

What’s Not?
Ah, the foibles of war (mystical and otherwise), technology vs. magic users, relationships gone wrong, vanity, crazed royalty, and other things. Ok. This does not a bad movie make, but -- OK, Spirited Away it is not but still… it’s still good. Oh, and for once no intro from that Lassiter joker… nice.

Moments to Remember?
There’s abit but I wanted to point out one of my favorites, in an incident of elder racing!
Halfway through the movie Sophie ends up going to one of the royal palaces looking to recruit Howl, and since he’s having a nervous breakdown he’s not going to show up to the palace. Sophie ends up going in his place and who should she run into at the palace but the Witch of the Waste, who first insults her on the way and then end up in a “race” of a long flight of stairs with her… which quickly becomes the Banzai of old women racing! Up those stairs Mystical Medicare ladies, and PLACE YOUR BETS NOW…! Go! Go! Go… uh, go grannies?!? Uh… well, wouldn’t you know it, the two “enemies” end up bonding after the near death experience racing up the stairs. Man, what a pain -- especially since it looks like all that “bonding” is going to go to waste since somebody is going to try and whack the Witch of the Waste which leads to… oh, plottwist! How surprising! Mystical McCarthy-ism! Oh, and Sophie ends up saving the Witch of the Waste who cursed her! Yeah, figures the bonding up the stairs would equal something like that!

What to Ignore?
Hmm… nothing. I guess nothing… even having to listen to Christian Bale as Howl was tolerable.
That and how Sophie kept changing back and forth from herself to old over and over again… weird.

Overall?
Look, the movie is good despite what the Academy and some naysayers may say about it.
Miyazaki is still at the top of his game as this movie attest, and while we may only have a few movies left to see of his before he retires I will enjoy each and every one… and so will you.
Watch, own, enjoy. Nuff said.

-- David Rasmussen 2nd Apr 06

Howl's Moving Castle Images