Welcome to the world of Miyazaki. This review is part of my tributes to the Miyazaki films - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds(1984), Castle in the Sky(1986), My Neighbor Totoro(1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service(1989), Princess Mononoke(1997), Spirited Away(2002), and Howl’s Moving Castle(2004)
In the DVD interview of Howl’s Moving Castle, Pixar's John Lasseter(creator of Pixar movies like Toy Story, Monster's Inc., Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and the person who brought Miyazaki films to the English speaking world) said - "When you watch any movie, you will be lucky if you see one new thing you haven't seen before. While Watching Miyazaki films you won't see one but more than half-a-dozen new things and that makes you blessed and that's what makes Miyazaki special". After experiencing(note that I haven't used word - watching) Miyazaki films over and over in last couple of years, I can't be agree more with Lasseter.
Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle(2004) is based on the Diana Wynne Jones's children's novel with same name and is the story of young girl who accepted her destiny of normal ways of life and how she forced to transform her destiny with love and confedence after accidental meeting with charming boy wizard.
Story
Howl's Moving castle sets in the 19th century Europe at the time when kingdoms are waging war against each other with the help of demons and wizards.
18-year Sophie is a reserved girl working in a family owned hat shop living with her step-mother and two step-sisters. When she was literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl, the vengeful witch of the waste, jealous of her friendship with Howl, casts a spell on Sophie that turns her into a 90-year old woman which she can't talk about.
Soon Sophie realizes that only way to get back her young age is to find Witch of the waste and break the spell. Ashamed of how she looks, she gathers little confidence and sneaks out of the town to the mountains across the town and takes a refugee at Howl's strange moving castle made from junk and trash. In the castle, she meets Calcifer, a fiesty fire demon who powers and operates the castle, lives in the hearth, and is bound by a contract with Howl. Seeing that Sophie is under a curse, Calcifier makes a deal with Sophie that if she breaks his contract with Howl, then Calcifier will lift the Sophie's curse and she will return to her 18-year-old age. Sophie also befriends Markel, Howl's apprentice who runs day to day castle's work. Soon Sophie learns how castle operates and how its different door opens to the four different locations including town of Porthaven and Kingsbury.
On the very next morning, Sophie meets Howl and finds him very charming and warm-hearted wizard who has a reputation of eating pretty girl's hearts. Sophie takes a position as housekeeper and after series of moments between Sophie and Howl; Sophie falls in love with Howl. As her confidence grows and love for Howl's grows, she starts feeling much younger. While Howl was busy fighting war with demons of two kingdoms, Sophie helps Howl to confront king's evil sorceress and finds out secret of how to break spell of Howl and Calcifier.
Analysis
On one hand Howl's Moving Castle is a heart-warming anti-war animation drama and on other hand, it’s a charming fairy tale filled with wonders and emotions. Miyazaki's world is strange mixture of fairy tales and 19th century technologies. There are magical castles, kingdoms, witches, wizards, and there are ships, aircrafts, trains, and factories. Hayao Miyazaki is known for his hand-drawn watercolor animations and Howl's moving castle is showcase of what he could do with that. Just watch out for very first animation when Howl's moving castle crawling on the hills through the clouds and how it emerges out of the clouds demonstrating its full splendor in clear sky.
As Lasseter said about Miyazaki films, Howl's moving castle indeed contains two unique things that world cinema yet to offer – Howl’s Castle itself and Castle door opening to different portals. Howl's castle is gigantic grayish black thing made from garbage and debris, and seeing the way castle moves on the uneven mountain top itself is like drunken man walking on the rough surface and we never know when it’s going to stumble. Castle has a portal door and opens into four different locations depends on where small color-coded wooden knob above the door gets pointed to - Howl's house in Porthaven, Howl's house in Kingsbury, Mountain of the waste from where Sophie entered in the Castle, and Wales(Howl’s Home Town).
Apart from castle itself and its portals; film is full of wonderful moments. Some of my favorite animations are when Howl esc*rt Sophie away from the military predators and their walk on air above the town square and the background score along with it, Sophie climbs the castle first time in the night time and the way Lantern throws its yellow light, and Sophie hangs out the laundry at star lake with the brilliant jumping movement of magically animated scarecrow, an aerial animations of Royal palace, serene beautiful Howl's secret garden with the small farm house and water-mill nearby, Calcifier’s transformation of old Castle to new Castle, Sophie’s time-travelled back to the Howl’s childhood, and last scene of Howl’s Flying Castle with happily married young Howl-Sophie together.
Many of the most thought-provoking beautiful moments(most confusing at first viewing) of the film comes in the second half of the movie that are more applicable to movie's main themes - Youth, Love, Innocence, Optimism, Courage, and Confidence. Even though 90 year old Sophie should be feeling dull and tired all the times, whenever she is happy or confident, she becomes young and Miyazaki shows us Sophie turned into middle-aged woman in those moments. Whenever she feels love for Howl, Miyazaki shows us she turned into young girl. In the latter half of the movie, Sophie turns into old and young, back and forth depends on Sophie's emotional state at that moment. Even though it’s some of the most confusing moments at first viewing, once viewers understand why it’s happening, they are some of the most fulfilling moments of the movie. It relates to movie's main theme, regardless of how old you are, you can feel youth if you are full of love, happiness, innocence, and confidence. How many times we feel depressed even though we are physically young but full of hate, pessimism, and unconfidence. Howl’s moving castle shows us how to feel young and what the key of magic called “Youth” is.
Just like many of the Miyazaki movies like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds and Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle is no exception and takes a clear stand against war. Being a pacifist, Miyazaki always opposed war and Howl’s character in the movie taking no stand against Kingdoms war proves Miyazaki’s belief.
Conclusion
It’s widely accepted that animations are children films. In Miyazaki world, its opposite is true except Totoro. His animations are visually beautiful, extremely complex, highly intelligent, and pure adult movies. It’s funny that even though Howl’s Moving Castle is arguably Miyazaki’s weakest film to date, it’s still one of his SEVEN masterpieces to date. A must see film for animation fan
