Howls’ Moving Castle is a classic
February 14, 2008 by Sim
Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the best animation I’ve ever seen this year. This is the type of story line that has to be watched twice in order to understand and find the true meaning behind the inspirational animation. I’ve spent countless minutes watching it and it was worth it, I can’t say the same for anyone else. Howl’s Moving Castle is a stark contrast from The Shutter, the movie that could make us hear noise when we’re alone, but The Shutter is extremely cool when we need the suspense. ; )
A short soundtrack.
Some of the things that caught my attention is the architecture of the buildings, the drawings of the scenes and the use of colors. The buildings are constructed using traditional wooden joints which are built much like furnitures, like this building below which I’d screen captured from the DVD.
The second most significant thing that caught my attention is Calcifer. Calcifer is a fire demon whose job it is to be the soul, the heart and the butler of the castle.
Calcifer, the heart of the castle.
Calcifer runs, operates and controls almost every part of the castle. This is cool because this means that I’m not the only one that believe that there is a Calcifer behind each of my tools. Yes, I might sound crazy but I treat my property just like Howl treats Calcifer. I often speak to my property (in my mind.) I don’t abuse the things that I own, organic or inorganic materials. But every property are used to its full potential in extreme environment and used in extreme fashions. By showing that I appreciate everything I own, I have things that can become extremely reliable. In fact, all our cars (one is 19 years old,) expensive tools and even machinery are called Mrs. Reliable (Khoon.)
The castle (mansion) collapsing. Image snapped from DVD.
In this picture, Sophie is seen running in the flower field. Behind her is an example of the beautiful, joyful color in the lake. The use of color in this way from Hayao Miyazaki is rare.
Some of the scenes I don’t get is this one. He runs out of the bathroom screaming about his ruined hair color. It’s unlike Howl to be acting like that. 
Disadvantages: The disadvantages about this movie that the story line goes on for a while without a clean plot. It isn’t a simple story. But may be a story that tells the stories of strange dimensional shifts, witchcrafts, wizardries and the practical lives in that era. There are some shocking scenes, like Howl running out of the bathroom and nearly dying. And the witch being adopted by Sophie. Whatever shocking scenes there may be, they are still an experience.
Edit: misspelled howl, not howel’s .
I do have to admit that I like Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away best; I saw this one several times.
I had watched Howl’s Moving Castle several months back, and it’s also good, a bit confusing to me as far as Sophie looking different each time, at some scene she was old, then changing to younger, making me think that the spell is weakening, or if those that saw her looking young has special power and can see the real her.
As for Howl running out from the Bathroom, it’s obvious that he is vain and looking good meant everything to him, a bit immature in my opinion, I guess some guys are like that, and Howl rather die than looking ugly, his reaction was just having a bad hair day…talking about overreacting.
What I like best was that Howl’s castle has a magical doorway that opens to different places, extremely convenient and cleverly done, wouldn’t it be nice to have this in real life, being able to open a door and escape to our own little world. I guess that’s what book is all about, reading books can take us to different places that we’ve never been to before, and all we need is an imagination.
What I didn’t get was Madame Suliman, what exactly did she want with Howl? I saw this in English version, what version did you see this in?
I’d watch this both in English and Japanese. I’d like the English version because the voices sound much better, although Sophie’s voice sound like a 40-year old. I believe what Madame Suliman want with Howl is his heart because she wanted his heart from the beginning. She disguised as a beautiful woman and lured Howel into her lovelife. And when Howel found out that she’s wasn’t beautiful, that she was just a witch, he was disappointed then ran back and hid in his castle. Madame Suliman still wants his heart and that is when she steals Calcifer, which contains Howel’s heart. The movie is strange but someone else may interpret it differently from me. I may have understood the story somewhat wrong but it’s what remembered.
I’d like to watch Spirited Away again because I may have missed some hidden meanings in the movie.
Lord of the Ring was strange to me at the beginning until I’d found many hidden meanings. Meanings that has come to help me improve my life. Star Trek is a good example of a logical story telling with a good meaning. It is clear and very easy to understand. Many of the pop movies made in Hollywood have very little meaning and I haven’t grown a brain cell from watching them. The Transformer had contain too many subliminal ads. The director of this movie had turn my childhood heroes; Ratchet, Bumblebee, Ultimus Prime and others into a characterless and unfriendly CGI robots. That’s okay since the movie is made in USA.
But I believed that Howl doesn’t have a heart because he gave it to Calcifer to save his life when he was a little boy, and that might be as to why he is not capable of loving anyone until the end where Sophie gave him back his heart, scene where she pushed Calcifer into his chest, but in the process she took a chance that she might have killed Calcifer at the same time.
So what you said about Madame Suliman sort of make sense to me now because her Kingdom only went to war so that she could summon Howl to her, just on of the tactics that she used. Evil. I guess I like the ending, sadly war is determined by one or few people, they can order people to go to war and order them to stop if they wish, how convenient is that. I’m like Howl, I don’t like war. I think this animation might be too complex for small children to understand.
I think what I said about Madame Suliman isn’t correct. I got her mixup with the witch of the waste. I’ll have to watch it again and this time I’ll pay more attention and find out what Madame Suliman want with Howel.
I believed that Madame Suliman was his mentor and she started the war because she thought that her opponent kidnapped her son, the missing Prince Justin, the prince that was transformed into a scarecrow by the Witch of the Waste. Howl was summoned by both kingdoms and couldn’t choose as to which to represent and since he didn’t like the war, then he fought his own war by fighting with both by destroying the aircrafts.
I think if Howl had showed up and refused to become a war wizard for Madame Suliman, then she’d strip him of his power just as she did to the Witch of the Waste. Since she was his mentor, she is obviously more powerful than he is, and that might be as to why he was afraid of her. At the very end, when Madame Suliman saw that her son was safe and Sophia broke the curse put on Prince Justin, then she called off the war. There might be more to the story but this seems like a logical explanation to me. I don’t think that Madame Suliman is an evil person; unlike the Witch of the Waste that casted spells on people but didn’t know how to take them off.
Just wanted to say that Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorites of all Hayao Miyazaki films…so far. Very true that it may be “too complex for small children to understand,” and even to some of the critics as well when it came out. I love the idea behind how each character were able to help one another out—especially Sophie, in finding Howl’s heart and restoring everything…sort of setting things right.
I like your cavern picture…very serene place. I have a picture from a calendar, Switzerland maybe, that is almost a spitting image of the cavern by the lake–surrounded by ice-capped mountain peaks on all sides.
Also, Miyazaki son is following in his father’s foot step and has made “Tales from Earthsea,’ which unfortunately will not be released in the US until 2009 due to copy right issue. However, Miyazaki himself is releasing one soon…similar to the “Little Mermaid” perhaps. Looking forward to it.
Hey TM, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle, written by Diana Wynne Jones is popular than I realized. I’ve heard some people saying that some of the scenes looks just identical to where they live - Switzerland and Austria.
I added my favorite short soundtrack mp3 recently, if anyone want a glimpse of it. I kinda like their real natural sound recorded from a quality instrument rather than a synthesized sound. The movie is a masterpiece; a somewhat confusing but cool masterpiece.