Witches and Curses to Watch: Howl's Moving Castle

Synopsis

This is the story of a young woman named Sophie Hatter, a simple girl who works in a hat shop with her mother. One day when she heads out to visit her sister at the bakery she ends up in an encounter involving slime men and a handsome wizard and this results in her receiving a visit from the Witch of the Waste and being cursed to an old woman. With her new form, Sophie decides to set out to test her fortune and in her journey, comes across the moving castle of the infamous Wizard Howl, rumoured to capture pretty girls and eat their hearts, but is it really so? Sophie soon finds out.

The Good

The art as always when it comes to Studio Ghibli films, are a treat to the eyes, especially with the vast fields and multiple locations showing a fantasy western touch. The same goes for the animation, as when it comes to films involving Miyazaki, every movement counts and it can be seen in the film. With the lore and fantasy mixed into the film it builds up to a unique world with unique aspects and rules.

The plot is an interesting twist, almost like a weird sort of fairy tale in a way, especially with the involvement of curses and witches and wizards. The characters are all interesting and dynamic in their own way, even the secondary characters have their own quirks which added to the story. From the stubbornness of protagonist Sophie to the dramatics of Howl, you can’t help but love these characters.

The Bad

As great as the art is and interesting the plot, it seems that all the excitement of the film was crammed into the second half and the beginning of the film ended up feeling somewhat disconnected with the rest with its slice of life (esque) regarding Sophie’s journey to break her curse and even then, the moment she arrives at the castle and meet the residents, it seems to take focus more on her time in the castle and taking care of it rather than her unravelling the mystery that she has involved herself in.

Then there is also the relationships between the characters with scarce development and build up even with the interesting moments of arguments and escaping together.

When compared to the book to which the story is mostly based off on, the book gives more in terms of adventure, taking time to develop the relationship between Sophie and Howl, even if it was not the smoothest of ones, it showed a special dynamic between the two in comparison to the film where in majority of it, other than that one scene where Sophie yelled at Howl, it had Howl being his charming and dramatic self and Sophie subtlely resisting his charms.

Conclusion

This is a must watch film with beautiful art, an interesting plot and engaging characters, even if not much excitement is seen in the middle of the film given how most of it takes focus onto Sophie and her time at the moving castle. When compared to the book, there is much more that goes on in the book but the film has its own sort of beauty with interesting law and fantastical looking spells to admire. Overall this is a beautiful film that starts off soft than grows towards the end and while the characters could have used some work, the film brought out a unique and interesting story.

Rating: 8/10