Review of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) by Compi24 — 11 May 2020

One of the first movies I've ever seen that I don't totally understand, yet am still completely enamored with regardless, "Howl's Moving Castle" is part Brothers Grimm fairy tale, part allegory for the Iraq War, part experiment in juxtaposing steampunk elements against traditional French architecture.

In short, it's challenging, yet impossible to look away from or get bored with. Of course, it helps that everything's simply incredible to look at from an animation standpoint and it's Miyazaki's vision for this that ultimately carries everything to its beautiful fruition.

So much of the runtime was filled with the following examples of internal questioning. "Wow, I wonder what that was about?" "Huh, I wonder what that guy's deal is?" "Interesting, I wonder why that's like that in this world?" Did all of these questions end up getting answered in the end? Not even close.

Did I need them to be? Evidently not, for my thinking on the unanswered and unexplained elements is only making the movie better in my eyes. What a vibrant, imaginative and satisfying entry point into the Studio Ghibli catalogue this was for me.