Howl's Moving Castle

Sophie is a young girl who works at her family’s hat shop. She seems to be depressed with her life yet she is in no hurry to change things. On one of her rare outings from the shop she runs into Howl, a young handsome wizard, who the whole town is talking about as his moving castle was recently seen escaping from the kings men near by. Howl though is being chased by some black blobs which are controlled by the Witch of the Waste. He protects Sophie from the aggressive sinister black ooze and they escape. Later as Sophie is closing her family’s hat shop, still dazed by her earlier surprise encounter with Howl, a mysterious caller comes and a spell is put on Sophie which turns her into an old wrinkled woman. Sophie faints and when she awakes she is alone but still cannot believe what has happened to her. The next day she confronts reality and decides that she cannot be seen as she is so she plans to run away into the wasteland to try to find a wizard that can reverse the spell. Wondering through the harsh wasteland she runs into a friendly mute scarecrow that can’t seem to keep from getting stuck in brush. With her new companion they look for a place to stay the night as a heavy storm is quickly approaching. To her amazement the scarecrow leads her to Howls moving castle and to the adventure that awaits her there. She disguises her true identify and becomes Howls live in maid and shows more pep cleaning up the old dusty castle than she ever did as the young Sophie. There she meets Howl’s apprentice, Markl, and a fire demon, Calcifer, who is in charge of powering the moving castle. Romance blossoms and it leaves its mark on Howl who is currently fighting a desperate battle for peace with two warring nations.

Howls Moving Castle, although an animated film, should be noted for its amazing story that will wrap viewer young and old up into its story. Though the premise of the film might sound like a Childs movie the film contains images of the hopeless destruction that war causes over the most foolish of reasons. Men marching to war, bombers dropping incendiary bombs over civilian towns, and battleship limping into the harbor with thousands of men gone are the darker images that this film provides. Although this film should not be considered a sad hopeless tale like Grave of the Fireflies as every inch of the film is bathed in beautiful scenery and magical spells that leave the viewer in awe. The film, directed by Hayao Miyazaki also known for Spirited Away, broke the Japanese box office record and it is estimated that almost one third of Japans total population will see the film.