Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - Review

Howl's Moving Castle is an animated film directed by the acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki, based off of a novel of the same name.  Not being an expert of anime (my knowledge pretty much extends to Evangelion and Evangelion alone), I'm not sure how this fits into his filmography.  From what I've read, this isn't one of his better films.  I can't speak for this, as the only other Miyazaki film I've seen at the time of writing this is Spirited Away (also a great movie).  But what I can speak for is that both Spirited and this film are some of the most beautifully nuanced and expressive animated works that I've ever seen.

Oh Turniphead.  How I love thee!

Make no mistake; this is a weird movie.  Don't let the marketing directed at children fool you.  This is one of those movies that would have scared me all the way to death had I seen it as a kid.  The same goes for Spirited Away.  While both films have a light and fun feel to them, there's an undercurrent of darkness in some of the character designs that's hard to shake.  The expressiveness of the film allows for fully realized characters, be they good or bad; basically, what I'm getting at is that some of the designs are creepy as hell.  But on the other side of the coin, the endearing characters are made even moreso due to the subtle use of expression throughout the film.  Take Turniphead for instance.

Turniphead is ostensibly just a scarecrow with no lines of dialogue.  But because of the way Miyazaki directs the film with deliberate breathing room for the characters to grow and express themselves, he becomes one of the most likable characters from just a few little moments of je ne sais quoi.

The story isn't the movie's strongsuit.  It's a bit confusing, quite frankly, and the spectacle of the film along with the strength of the characters completely overtakes it.  That's okay though, because the story isn't really what Miyazaki is all about.  He's all about evoking emotion, be it dramatically (which this movie does quite well) or subtly (which it does even better).  He has such mastery over his vision, there really is no other way this movie could have played out.  Despite a minor problem with the rushed nature of the ending, I feel like this is one of the best animated works I've seen yet.  And it's definitely a sign that I need to get into more of Miyazaki's works, because if this isn't one of the better ones, then I'm in for some truly fantastic stuff.