Howl’s Moving Castle: Not Everyone’s Favorite, But I Love It

This post was meant to be a part of a series of posts that we intended to get out, well a while ago.  But life comes at you and you just have to roll with it. :)  (I.e. we’ve been extra busy.)  However, I wanted to stay true to the promise for more Ghibli reviews, so here we go!

I wanted to write this review next because my husband was talking about me with an acquaintance, and the conversation went as follows:

Logan: So, one of my wife’s favorite movies is Howl’s Moving Castle.

Other Dude: Hm, that sounds really stupid.

Hmmmmmm….  I’ve heard “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” but it takes an extra step to judge the proverbial “book” only having heard its title (unless the title is absolutely outrageous, of course).  Not sure who this dude was, but he is totally off on this one.  In my opinion, Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the top three Ghibli films and is my personal favorite.  I have come across other Ghibli people who like the movie, but don’t love it.  And one reason I often hear is that they don’t love the story because there is “too much going on.”  I couldn’t disagree more with this and other criticisms, and here’s why:

• Sophie (the lead female character) is a real woman with real flaws.  There are so many movies, TV shows, books, etc. where the main female characters are flattened by being made out to be some picture-perfect person with no flaws whatsoever.  And those types of characters irritate me to no end.  Sophie, however, is a woman with a flaw in confidence; she thinks she is not beautiful and views herself as plain and generally unattractive.  As the film goes on, Sophie discovers that she is a beautiful person—inside and out.  This is huge for someone with confidence issues and is super inspiring for other women and young women who might feel the same as the not-so-confident Sophie.

This photo shows what kind of person Sophie was before finding out how beautiful she truly is.

Howl and Sophie meeting for the first time, and Howl, coincidentally, saving Sophie's life.

Sophie as an old woman under a curse given by the evil Witch of the Wastes.

• The characters are incredibly iconic.  I mean, tell me you haven’t seen any Ghibli/anime merch featuring either Calcipher, Howl, Sophie, Turnip Head, or Heen.  If you do, I know you’re lying because I see it everywhere where fan merch (mostly for anime and/or Ghibli) is sold.  With that, the characters are SO well-developed and none of the main people are lost through the cracks with lack of character development.  

Heen, the asthmatic dog; Howl's apprentice, Markl; and Turnip Head from left to right.

The Castle itself in the Wastes

• The setting is BEAUTIFUL.  Primarily set in Europe, Howl’s Moving Castle is a visual masterpiece, and I mean it.  The mountains of The Wastes are eerily gorgeous and the town has a real personality in and of itself.  I feel like the Ghibli crew really captured the feel of Europe in this film (see below for various pictures of the setting).

Almost fooled you, huh?  This is not from the movie, but is the actual place that the setting in Howl's Moving Castle was based on.

• The story is fantastic.  This is where I really differ from haters of the movie because I think that there is not, in fact, too much going on in the story.  What I think is happening instead is the film successfully weaves together many important details to create the complex and beautiful masterpiece that is Howl’s Moving Castle.  Also, the main story line is so touching because you get a sweet story about an eccentric, fun playboy wizard who ends up unexpectedly falling in love with girl who feels unloved and overlooked.  Howl sees in Sophie what others miss: the major part of her beauty is to be found in her personality.

Rating out of 10: I would probably have to give this one 9/10 because there were some things that I feel were not perfect.  One example of this would be the fact that the music in the movie is not as interesting as other Ghibli flicks.

This is a fairly short review, but I feel like I said all I had to about this Ghibli favorite of mine.  I hope you consider watching it for yourself, even if you don’t think you like anime.  Thanks for reading and ciao for now!

Corey Cherrington