Howl's Moving Castle: Love and War

Written by Daisy Rodgers

Howl’s Moving Castle is a movie that tells the story of a young woman who works at a hat shop, Sophie, who gets put under a curse by the Witch of the Waste that turns her into an old lady. Unable to break the spell on her own, Sophie finds sanctuary in the amazing moving castle of the mysterious and powerful wizard Howl. Sophie becomes the cleaning lady for Howl and in the midst of this also forms a relationship with not only Howl but also a couple of his buddies, Calcifer, who is a fire demon and Markl, who is Howl’s apprentice. During her journey in the moving castle, Sophie helps Howl with his broken heart and also finds a way to break both their curses. In the end of the movie bravery and determination restore the both of them and peace is brought back into the world. 

Review

I think this movie is about more than just a moving castle, I think it also demonstrates ways to overcome things through love and courage. As for Sophie who is put under a spell by the Witch of the Waste she overcomes this spell by finding love for herself and breaking the contract that’s between Howl and Calcifer. Sophie’s curse is ultimately a reflection about how she feels about herself and her own insecurities, so eventually she finds a way to overcome that by finding beauty within herself throughout the movie, this quote specifically demonstrates how Sophie felt about herself before she overcame this, “I know I can be of help to you, even though I’m not pretty and all I’m good at is cleaning.”

Picturing featuring both Howl and Sophie, and the castle featured in the background

I think the director of this movie did a really great job of inserting topics such as war, aging and compassion into this film while also making it a family friendly film. Another thing that really stood out to me while watching this movie was the moving castle and all its glory, the moving castle is full of mystery and conundrum, while also being capable of many things. As for the animation of this movie I think Hayao Miyazaki did a great job of making the visuals very aesthetically pleasing to the eye, along with the rest of his films. The castle specifically seems to be put together by all kinds of different parts, it’s very abstract but I think that’s what makes it so intriguing.

The overall landscapes that are shown in this film are just very visually appealing, I believe all the landscapes shown in Hayao Miyazaki are drawn by him as well so that makes it extra cool.

All in all I think this movie is a touching film that also offers extremely stunning and intriguing visuals as you watch. This film demonstrates the importance of being able to find beauty within yourself and just ultimately love yourself, while also being able to touch on topics like war and to show the beauty of aging. I would rate this film 5 stars, it’s a great movie to watch.