HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (DVD)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, long notable animation career)
Starring: voices of Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, Emily Mortimer, Blythe Danner

I don’t know of anyone creating films more imaginative than Miyazaki over the past decade. The wonderlands he evoked in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were stunning creative masterpieces in many many ways. I loved quite a lot about those films and easily rank them among the best films of the last decade. Like those successes Howl’s Moving Castle is again possessed of great imagination and beauty and an intriguing story. There is much to recommend. I don't feel it's quite at the level of those two past films, but it's certainly a wonderfully unique work in its own right.

The movie is set in a Victorian fairlyland of half-timbered cities and steaming locomotives, but also in nightmarish magical battlefields. Wizards and witches are called to war or are forced to hide in the “wastelands", which are rather more like perfect mountain meadows than any waste. In a simple shop Sophie, a plain, but sweet young girl (voiced by Mortimer in the American version) makes hats with her family, until she runs afoul of a the Witch of the Wastes who curses her with old age.

Now an old woman Sophie finds her way to the fantastical moving castle of the wizard Howl. A “castle” it’s not. Rather it’s a moving mountain of mis-matched rooms and machinery infused with the power of a fire spirit (Billy Crystal in a wonderful role). Sophie deals with her curse with pinache and steadfast positive thinking. She is not depressed by her situation. She makes the best of it. Soon she becomes the caretaker of Howl and his moving castle.

Howl has much to learn from this woman. He is despondant and childish and overwhelmed by the smallest crises. He's also beautiful and powerful and talented, but he's used his talents to create this moving castle so that he can run away from the challenges in life. There are magical doors in the castle that open to many places, including cities on both sides of the wicked war that is raging, allowing him to make quick escapes as the situation demands. After much adventure, Sophie cleans him up and props him up and teaches him to stand on his own until he eventually confronts the challenges facing him. Of course they also fall in love and Sophie regains her youth.

There are many magical moments in this film - perhaps too many to count. On the downside, the plot tended to drag on and felt like it was simply petering-out in the end, a concern I also had with Spirited Away. Nonetheless, there is enough that is unique and delightful and magical in this film that it should be seen. One scene of a film this creative is worth a hundred Jim Carrey comedies.

Standouts: The wonderous imagination that fills every frame of this picture.
Blowouts: The plot tends to falter now and again, and even at the big finish.

Grade: A-