Original title: Hauru no ugoku shiro
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Starring Chieko Baisho, Takuya Kimura etc.

Young Sophie is a mad hatter. She makes hats for a living, and she is mad because a witch put a spell on her that makes her look like a 90-year old woman.

All is well in Someplaceorother (name escapes me), apart from the fact that the country is at war with it’s neighbour, for reasons unclear. While out walking, a seemingly safe and mundane thing to do, Sophie meets the mysterious wizard Howl and becomes entangled in his “evil plot to not take over the world but rather be left alone in his walking castle”.

The story in Howl’s Moving Castle is paper-thin, but I really don’t give a rat’s ass. How cool is this movie? On a scale from 1 to 10 it’s about.. oh.. 10. If you yourself define a scale, you can’t place your mark outside of it. It was clever around the time when “cats” were “hip”, now it’s the mark of morons. I’m not gonna compare it to Miyazaki’s other works, since he’s in a league of his own, far above the competition, and outside the restrictions of mainstream animation. By now his name is a guarantee of quality, since even if something is off, the rest of the ingredients are tasty enough anyway.

Watch it for the unparallelled cuteness factor of wheezing dogs and sleeping cow dolls. Watch it for the technicolor views and cool action sequences. Watch it for the love of God (Miyazaki).

Oh, and watch the trailer here.

This is His review, you can read Her review here.

Keywords: Miyazaki, Japanese, Anime

Original title: Hauru no ugoku shiro
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Starring Chieko Baisho, Takuya Kimura etc.

A wonderful animated movie where we follow the adventures of Sofî, who during wartime, works in a hat shop. One day, while being bothered in a backlane by soldiers, she is whisked away by a young man (Howl) who is not only handsome, but a wizard. She falls in love at first site, but before the night is through, a spell is put on her by a nasty witch that makes her very old. Not knowing what to do she runs away and through an act of kindness, comes to live in Howl’s castle as the housekeeper.

I will not tell you any more of the story because it’s fun to have it unfold but I can say that the director, Hayao Miyazaki, has done a marvelous job of making the characters more than 2D cartoons. He brings them to life by showing us their many facets, such as the brave and bold Howl, who at times is insecure and he even makes us feel sorry at some point for the Witch of the Waste. He makes us think twice about what we really love about the people we care for and why.

Although it’s very, very pretty, it’s also quite an adventure with both action and bad guys. Heck there’s even a bit of drama and also a little romance. It’s got an weird castle that looks like a junkyard contraption that not only has legs, it also flies. Although it did have all these characteristics, it was not a movie that tried to be everything and failed, instead it brought all these different aspects together rolled up in very cool graphical eye-candy. It was simply delightful; a true treasure.

This is Her review, you can read His review here.

Keywords: Miyazaki, Japanese, Anime