Howl’s Moving Castle: A Review

Hayao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” is adapted from a British novel by Diana Wynne Jones. This castle which our movie is about can be described as a whole bunch of machines that came together, forming a huge construction. Castle also has magical powers, such as shape-shifting and there is a room that opens wherever you want it to. The castle’s owner is Howl, who is a wizard with some mental and psychological issues.

The movie begins while our main character Sophie works. She goes out then she’s attacked by some soldiers but Howl saves her while he was being chased down by some monster kind of things, and that’s how they meet. This event catches Witch of the Waste’s attention, and because of jealousy, she turns Sophie into an old lady.

Sophie then leaves the town and meets a scarecrow and follows him and she finds herself at Howl’s castle. Sophie calls him Turniphead. She meets Calcifer who supplies the castle’s energy and meets Markl. Then she claims herself to be the castle’s housekeeper.

Later on, Howl faces an issue, because he is asked to serve two battling kingdoms. Howl begs Sophie to go instead of him because he is afraid to face the king. However, on Sophie’s way there a series of unfortunate events happen, where she faces the Witch of Waste. And when we think defeat is sure, Howl saves her and we have a happily-ever-after movie ending.

That’s all for the summary. For the review, we can examine our main characters more deeply, If we were to start with Sophie, we can see her struggles with staying old and missing her youth, but she also kinda accepts it does not do much to change it, and she is quick to judge herself, thinks no one in the world wants her. Then Howl wants her and shows her he loves Sophie’s soul and can see it. Apart from that, we can see that Sophie never adapts to this world, so we can’t feel like she is the heroine, as she always sees herself as a plus-one, a helper. Maybe that is why she ran away from everything too.

Then, of course, Studio Ghibli’s animation made this movie way better. Animation and scenery, and how the characters’ expressions were portrayed were terrific, and it just makes me define the movie as “beautiful” and Ghibli increased this movie’s enjoyability. Plus, the music was well chosen and appropriate to the theme, again leveling up the movie’s overall quality.

Whether you are a fan of Miyazaki’s films or not this is an enjoyable movie. However, if you have watched Miyazaki’s other works you’ll realize that there are better ones. Even though there are better ones, this is still my favorite. If you love a movie with good music and animation, you will love this one.

Zeynep Saraç