Name(s): Howl’s Moving Castle / Howl no Ugoku Shiro / ハウルの動く城 / Das wandelnde Schloss / El Castillo Ambulante / Le Château ambulant
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Studio Ghibli

Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite Miyazaki movies. It sucks that I have to fall into the same trap everyone else does and have to admit I just adore the animation quality and value it above his simple stories and reused themes. The animation isn’t even always that amazing, except for the gorgeous background details—especially the exterior of the castle itself, which is one of the most jaw-dropping things I’ve seen in an animated movie. The number of moving parts that have to synchronize yet still convey a sense of chaos demonstrates an astounding level of technical proficiency. Even when CGI is used to help patch things together, it can be forgiven by such spectacular awe.

Despite the usual themes of “everyone’s misunderstood and no one’s really bad” and “strong independent women that don’t need no man yet also gets a man” that tend to come with Miyazaki, and of which consistently become less potent, the plot itself is straightforward. There are a few moments that I felt needed further explanation, which I assume existed in the original novel, but that’s still a narrative flaw.

The characters are enjoyable, and while female leads are often extremely similar in Miyazaki movies, this one spends most of the movie as a spunky old woman and that juxtaposition brings some life to her. Still, there is the occasional odd behavior from the characters that isn’t satisfyingly justified, particularly with the witch and Solomon.

The pacing is odd, since the story shifts gear at random intervals, and the ending in particular seems to come out of nowhere in a bizarre anti-climax. Up until then, I was going to say the movie was too long, but now I don’t even know. Maybe it’d be more accurate to claim that it doesn’t balance its act structure properly, which is always a significant obstacle when adapting literature to film.

Miyazaki is at his best when he’s distracting from simplistic plots with an interesting and detailed world, which is probably why this is one of his best alongside Spirited Away. The magical, fantastical character designs and accompanying spells are unpredictable, which means that even as a late-period Miyazaki movie, it still has some surprises to retain whimsy when the storyline doesn’t. I recommend Howl’s Moving Castle, for sure.