Howl’s Moving Castle is yet another Miyazaki Hayao film. Strangely enough, it’s an adaptation of a novel by Dianna Wynne Jones. Despite the fact that someone else wrote the story, it has all the elements of a Miyazaki film. Just to illustrate this, let’s run through Steven’s list of Miyazaki themes and see if they show up in this movie…
1. A fascination with flying machines of all kinds. If at all possible, they should be nonstandard and based on has-been or never-was technologies. […]
This movie may have the most absurd Miyazaki flying machines so far. Not only are they huge flying air fortresses, but they fly using flapping wings. However, this world also has magic, so the impossible flying machines could be excused by the use of magic.
2. A general distaste approaching outright hatred of anyone wearing military uniforms. […] Virtually everyone in uniform is either a mindless automaton who blindly follows orders, or a rank idiot hell-bent on causing death and destruction just because.
This movie has both.
3. A preference for girls as protagonists.
Check.
4. A tendency to portray old people sympathetically even though they may have faces made ugly by time. […]
Check again. In fact, this time the protagonist is a very ugly old person. Sort of. Sometimes.
5. A bit of a tendency to preach. Most of his movies have a message of some kind. Sometimes it’s delivered with a heavy hand.
This movie isn’t as heavy as some, but it does continue his familiar themes: War is bad, and people who fight in wars are mostly idiots. He’s been singing this particular song for years. He does it well, but I think Miyazaki fans can be forgiven for wondering if he knows any other tunes.
Amazing that a story by another author fits the Miyazaki formula so perfectly. Either he greatly changed the original story to suit his purposes, or Miyazaki Hayao and Dianna Wynne Jones have very similar writing styles and ideas.
About halfway into the movie I was thinking, “This is great! This is my favorite Miyazaki movie so far.” The visuals are great, but not overdone as they were in Steamboy. The world is vibrant and full of detail. The characters are great (and not repulsive, as in the aforementioned Steamboy). The bad guys are bad, but nobody is pure cardboard-cutout evil. The main character is compelling.
It starts with Sophie:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Howl’s Moving Castle”
Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.
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