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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
U | | Cast
Emily Mortimer
Christian Bale
Lauren Bacall. | | Directors
Hayao Miyazaki. | | Screenwriters
Hayao Miyazaki. | | Running Time
119 minutes |
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Howl's Moving Castle (U) Plot
In a fairy-tale world between Harry Potter and Jules Verne, dowdy Sophie (Mortimer) leads a dull existence in her family hat-shop. Then she meets Howl (Bale), a wizard who looks like a pop star, and the Witch Of The Waste (Bacall), who turns her into a crone. And that’s only the start… Review
A few years ago, the standard perception of Japanese anime was of strange, noisy cartoons that made no sense. Anime fans would always respond in the same way: they’d point to the delightful and brilliant early films of Hayao Miyazaki, such as My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, with their thoroughly simple, lucid storytelling. Then Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won an Oscar and suddenly everyone was a fan – despite complaints that his movies weren’t so clear any more.
The irony is, now we’ve got a Miyazaki film in multiplexes, excellently dubbed by an A-list cast (with a subtitled version simultaneously released for purists), the director’s abandoned clarity altogether. To most viewers, Howl’s Moving Castle will prompt the same response that Lewis Carroll’s Alice had to the Jabberwocky poem: “It seems very pretty but it’s rather hard to understand.” That didn’t worry Japanese audiences, who made Howl a monster hit, but Western viewers may have less patience.
Fortunately, Howl is as much of a hand-drawn treat as Spirited Away, chock-full of numinous sunsets, fabulous organic machinery and gratuitously delightful touches. The Gilliamesque walking castle of the title is a star, stomping over hills like a misshapen dragon, but so is the wheezing little dog that pops up midway. Western viewers may find the European landscapes (based on Alsace in ) less exotic than the oriental bathhouse in Spirited Away, but a Freudian dream-cave where the heroine unearths Howl’s true nature is as gorgeous an image as any in fantasy cinema, giving evocative power to an oblique love story.
On the downside, it’s hard to tell if Miyazaki is playing silly buggers with expectations or has given up on plot altogether while heavily reworking this book by the fiendishly clever British kid’s writer Diana Wynne Jones. The demonic war glimpsed throughout is little more than window-dressing (even though Miyazaki saw air-raids as a child and war-on-terror allegories are there for the taking), while the underlying parallels are with Peter Pan (a flying hero with arrested development) and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (a relationship turned into an out-of-synch odyssey). An outrageous cop-out ending sees castle and plot collapse in a way that may please avant-gardists, but it’ll infuriate mainstream viewers who’ve been patiently waiting for things to come together. Verdict
Just as Miyazaki seemed on the verge of properly crossing over, he serves up an anime riddle wrapped in an enigma – though with all his usual charm, wit and hand-drawn beauty.
Reviewer: Andrew Osmond
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Average user rating for Howl's Moving Castle
| | | Miyazaki's finest film. Stunning and surreal. ... Read More
| | | TheNapalmKid About me | | 19:52, 30 October 2009 | Report This Post | |
| | | | Lush And Beautiful. | | | I really liked this, it was romantic and lush with beautiful drawings and jaw-dropping moments. The castle is like a wonder you have to expore with people around you, the story is passionate and deeply romantic as Sophie begins to fall for Howl and is a mother figure for Markl. The voice-overs were brillant, Christian Bale is always charming and has a voice that washes over you with passion and desire. I liked Sprirted Away very much but this one takes my heart in a whole different meaning. ... Read More
| | | joanna likes films About me | | 15:09, 18 April 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | | Howl's 'Moving' Castle | | | This animated work of art was visually breathtaking. Audiances these days are impatient in their cinema seats and with the state of cinema experiance these days, its no wonder we enjoy a film at all. How the characters meet, gel and live together in this castle is very admirable and beautiful to see. The film ends well with its major plot point resolved of which some have claimed that not to be the case. The music is sweeping and mesmerising especially in sequences where the lead character Sophi... Read More
| | | Armenra About me | | 20:16, 24 August 2007 | Report This Post | |
| | | | TERRIBLE | | | Absolutely terrible, terrible storyline, terrible characters. THE ENTIRE MOVIES TERRIBLE!!!!! ... Read More
| | | minotaur3004 About me | | 03:01, 17 April 2007 | Report This Post | |
| | | | Howl's Moving Castle | | | I love studio ghibli and hayao miyazaki. Spirited Away is my favourite along with akira, ghost in the shell and my neighbour totoro. I waited for a new masterpiece. I am still waiting. this is not awful nor bad it is just not as good as other ghibli movies. BUT DEFINATELY BETTER THAN POM POKO! This is just a bit of a copy of spirited away after it won an oscar. (correct me if i am wrong) This may be a bit of a creepy movie for ages 0-6. ( a word of warning) Watch it if you have alocal choices w... Read More
| | | rockerjo About me | | 12:04, 25 March 2007 | Report This Post | |
| | | | | | Loved this film, Kaucifer is wonderful, by far my favourite character, despite having no clue as to the details of Sophie's curse I loved it, it's an enderaring story with all the charm you'd expect from a Miyazaki film ... Read More
| | | tired_geek86 About me | | 01:12, 30 July 2006 | Report This Post | |
| | | | ok | | | not the best film but certainly great! ... Read More
| | | alexisreaver2132 About me | | 12:21, 17 May 2006 | Report This Post | |
| | | | Not Spirited Away but... who cares IT RULES!!! | | | Yet again Miyazaki turns over another page in his excellent line of films. Howl's Moving Castle is the best animated film I've seen since .. well..Spirited Away! (I still prefer Spirited Away, my favourite film of all time) Even if some of the plot isn't explained well, Miyazaki obviously wants you to work it out for your self. The animation is once aain stunning and leaps of the screen, with a beautiful story, and unforgettable characters! It's a true gem of animation, and has a great English d... Read More
| | | HayaoMiyazakiRules About me | | 17:22, 13 May 2006 | Report This Post | |
| | | | Why do people give it any stars at all!!!??? | | | PLOT: none!
GENRE: none!
If I could I would give it 0 stars! This boring movie has no storyline and is so muddled and all over the show you feel like it's never gonna end. My friends mum even fell asleep half way through. It is typical corny complete unoriginal imagination bore. It is always talking about some dumb war and ending it and lying and all tied in and it starts to hurt your head and you wonder why you continue to watch. You might say you keep watching it because you want to see what... Read More
| | | J.M.N. About me | | 10:39, 27 April 2006 | Report This Post | |
| | | | ''QUITE BRILLIANT'' | | | ONE OF THE FINEST ANIMATED MOVIES I HAVE SEEN YEARS. ... Read More
| | | soulfood About me | | 16:41, 01 April 2006 | Report This Post | |
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