Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Rating: 90%
Now I've at least been a little interested to see this movie before I went to check it out from the library. But what started to really get my attention was when one of my best friends wanted me to see it and even suggested that we would watch it at the same time even though we actually live pretty far from each other. So after a couple of weeks I finally got my hands on it and we set the date where we would both watch this very interesting movie: Howl's Moving Castle.


Plot: Sophie is a hatter who works in her late father's shop. One day on her way to visit her sister, a mysterious man named Howl comes to save her from some guards and a group of blob men and along the way, begins to take a liking to her. This comse to the attention of the Witch of the Waste who casts a spell on her that turns her into an old woman and keeps her from telling anyone about it. Sophie runs away to find a life more suitable to her old age and along the way helps a living scarecrow who in turn, takes her to the legendary Howl's Moving Castle where she becomes the cleaning lady for Howl and his apprentice, Markl. 


This is definitely a creative movie. I mean you really have to like how they take a whole different view about witches, wizards and spells and what other fantasy stuff that was in the film. The world in this movie in general is very fascinating. And there's some pretty good lines. The thing is that it's one of those movies that you really have to watch at least twice in order to understand what's happening right away. But as far as explaining goes, the one issue I have is that there's some things you can't understand right away. My best example is over how while there's a whole war going on, you can't really notice until the end to know why there's a war. I mean after watching the movie again, I can think of only one time where they actually mention why the war is there, but it was being explained to us by characters who were talking about it in the background. They really should've been more up front on why the war is there and why Howl and some of the other magical characters find it completely stupid. I mean there was no way most of us could've been paying attention to the characters in the background who were talking about it because I believe the movie lead us to be way more focused on what Sophie was doing at that time.


Characters:
Howl: Howl was a very interesting character. I mean most of the time he was this person who was in a way courageous and optimistic even when things were looking terrible, and even had a big friendly heart. yet at the same time there's this serious side considering the war, then he's all of the sudden actually a coward, and at one point there's this really crazy time where he was just being over dramatic. I thought that made him a really creative character. Plus, it was interesting that he was voiced by Christian Bale. (Never really thought I'd see him in an anime. Go figure.) 
Sophie: To me what really helped especially when it came to the connection between Sophie and Howl was the spell Sophie was into. I mean it was hardly ever the usual boy meet girl story when a lot of the time, Sophie's an old woman. I mean in a way they do it too well in terms of how old Sophie and young Sophie are totally different characters. I mean in a way it makes sense, but they kinda make it so that they were almost too different. But at the same time, I thought it really worked in terms of making the story all the more really original.
Calcifer: You know what's interesting about this character? He was voiced by Billy Crystal. Seriously. I mean when I was first watching the movie my dad was walking by and then he went "Is that Billy Crystal?" and then looked at the back of the DVD case and hey, it is. Even that aside, he was an a cool looking creature.

Music: I thought the music was very nice.


And that's my review for Howl's Moving Castle. You most likely have to watch it more than once to fully understand it, but it pays off with being a really good film to enjoy.