Howl's Moving Castle

Well, let me say, this movie made me want to go out and find a troubled animated wizard of my own.  AKA I loved it! I even went so far as to actually buy it. Go ahead, gasp in surprise, that never happens.  So, about the movie, I really like Miyazaki films, so I was really excited when I saw movie posters for Howl's when i was in Japan last year.  The really hard part was waiting until last week for a chance to actually get to see it (it never came to the theaters in small town Montana) My first impression was that it had the same look and feel as every other Miyazaki film, and even felt the tiniest bit formulaic with the heroine having the two eccentric friends, it just kind of felt like spirited away, but with some more mature characters. However, I found that as the movie progressed, I simply didn't care if it resembled anything else.  The most amazing thing about it was the fact that it sucked you into this magical world, and by the end of the movie, if you are a girl, I bet good money that you will be in love with Howl too... My love of the movie aside, there were some definite problems with the film, such as, what the hell is going on with the curse on Sophie? What is the cure? Why does she keep randomly changing ages?  While I'm sure that I could figure that out, or at least form my own hypothesis about it after several viewings, I was just confused after the first one.  Also unknown is the fact that Howl is actually cursed.  I also thought that the turniphead/prince/true love thing was just totally out in the right field and made no sense at all.  My advice, rent it, watch it, love it.  Or just come over and watch it with me :)   Disclaimer; this is Anime, that means that it is animated, not real people. So if you hate anything cartoony, DON'T EVEN BOTHER ;p

I just wanted to add that the book  the above movie is based on is great! I loved the movie, but I loved the book more. It really fleshed out the curse and made the side stories actually make sense. I warn you, the plot is not really that similar to the movie, and you may end up wishing that the movie was a little closer to the book. This is a nice easy read and would be great on a beach.