Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Howl’s Moving Castle is streaming on Max at the time of writing. Rated PG. Common Sense says 8.
STORY: A
Dreams are so weird and so much fun.
Sure, the lady whose age kept changing made perfect sense in your sleep. And it wasn’t an issue last night that your house wasn’t really a house but an RV born from a junkyard that had suddenly come to life.
Totally normal stuff. But in the light of day, that fact is impossible to explain without your friends thinking you may need to lie down again.
Dreaming is a universal language. We can all “hear” it (which means that it makes a lot of sense as we listen/watch the dream unfold in our heads). But when we try and retell the dream to someone the next day, we learn that we can’t “speak” it. It most often comes out sounding like a jumbled mess.
Hiyao Miyazaki, though? He’s a rare soul who can speak the language of dreams fluently in the daytime. It’s no surprise we need to go to a dark, quiet theater to hear it.
PEOPLE: A
Sophie needs nobody else to help her get by in her world. She’s independent, even if she may not be totally at ease with it. She may be afraid at first. She may be petrified. But she’s a survivor. Once she learns to care less about what others may think, her life takes flight to amazing new heights.
Howl is beguiling, but immature. Markl is plucky, yet silly. Calcifer is (somehow) simultaneously a grump and a dear.
And even if you’re not a fan of vegetables, Turnip Head will slowly grow on you and become your favorite.
FILM NERD STUFF: A+
Have you ever noticed how good food tastes when it’s cooked with love? I can hear some of you snorting in disagreement, but I believe it does. And I feel the same way about the animation in this film.
The colors grab your attention. The way things move can enchant you. I even found the way that the clouds float across the green hillsides moving.
The love these filmmakers have for the movie spills off the screen and into our soul.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? (Elective Class): A+
I’m going to keep going with this food thing. My favorite food is a chicken finger sub, on white, medium with the works from John’s Pizza and Sub Shop. If I ‘m ever in a “last supper” situation, that would be it.
I often dream of eating one every day. I think I could do it. But if I had a chicken finger sub every day, it wouldn’t be the same.The excitement would wear off pretty quickly.
Howl’s Moving Castle’s universe is not full of chicken finger subs. It is full of magic, which the people living there appear to see on the daily. Yet they’re still mystified and amazed when they see it.
Isn’t that the key to living a life full of magic? Making the choice to never be amazed by the incredible things we encounter every day?
Miyazaki’s film is about magic, it is magic, and it’s an instruction manual for how to live a life full of it.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Howl’s Moving Castle is, well … moving. Miyazaki has stuffed a few messages about war, self-esteem, and purpose into one of the most magical animated realms ever seen on screen.
It’s a classic for a reason.