Review of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) by Alic — 27 Sep 2005

'It's like dreaming....' says Sophie half way through the film. I couldn't have put it better myself. Watching Miyazaki movies is like having a brilliant dream: this is the best of his movies that I have seen.

It's tighter, with a stronger narrative thread, and avoids going too far along the surreal, blob-lined tangents that Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away linger on. As always, the visuals are exceptionally beautiful, breathtaking in a way that non-animation landscapes can never hope to match.

We watched it exhausted after a day of packing before a house move, and yet were gripped and enchanted for the full two hours of the movie, with idiot grins fixed on our faces both during it and for at least an hour afterwards.

Wonderful.