Howl's Moving Castle Review

The castle is the reason to watch: a lurching assembly of chimneys, gun turrets and one enormous tongue, animated with a weight and a rhythm no computer built machine has matched since. Around it Miyazaki assembles his best material, a heroine whose apparent age moves with her confidence, a fire demon with a grudge, a hopping scarecrow. Sophie is a wonderful creation and the first half, in which a woman cursed into old age simply decides to get on with things, is close to perfect.

Then the war arrives. A conflict with no cause and no course is introduced, allegiances change without explanation, and the ending unties every knot in a few minutes using a device the film has not earned. The craft never falters for a frame, and the voice work and the score are among Ghibli's warmest. The story does falter, and the settled view of this one has always been that a gorgeous film loses its shape in the hand.