Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #711 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-01
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like a dream, Howl's Moving Castle carries audiences to vistas beyond their imaginations where they experience excitement, adventure, terror, humor, and romance. With domestic box office receipts of over $210 million, Howl passed Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke to become the #3 film in Japanese history, behind his Spirited Away and James Cameron's Titanic.

Based on a juvenile novel by Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle marks the first time Miyazaki has adapted another writer's work since Kiki's Delivery Service (1989). Sophie, a 19-year-old girl who believes she is plain, has resigned herself to a drab life in her family's hat shop--until the Witch of the Waste transforms her into a 90-year-old woman. In her aged guise, Sophie searches for a way to break the Witch's spell and finds unexpected adventures. Like Chihiro, the heroine of Spirited Away, Sophie discovers her hidden potential in a magical environment--the castle of the title.

Using CG, Miyazaki creates a ramshackle structure that looks like it might disintegrate at any moment. Sophie's honesty and determination win her some valuable new friends: Markl, Howl's young apprentice; a jaunty scarecrow; Calcifer, a temperamental fire demon; and Heen, a hilarious, wheezing dog. She wins the heart of the dashing, irresponsible wizard Howl, and brings an end an unnecessary and destructive war. The film overflows with eclipsing visuals that range from frightening aerial battles to serene landscapes, and few recent features--animated or live action--offer as much magic as Howl's Moving Castle.--Charles Solomon

Synopsis
Acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki adapts British writer Diana Wynne Jones's popular fantasy tale for this animated feature, adding his own unique and celebrated dreamlike spin. The dreaded Witch of the Waste turns Sophie, a young hat-maker, into an old woman when she attracts the notice of Howl, a young wizard whom the witch desires for herself. As the old woman, Sophie finds refuge as a cleaning lady in Howl's magical castle, an impressively realised mishmash of anthropomorphic shafts and gears, where she meets, among other wonders, a cantankerous fire demon named Calcifer. Howl's courage inspires her to seek a cure for her curse, and vice versa, and the two work together to prevent a major war as the castle roams the countryside on its mechanical legs. There's lots of magic afoot as well, including travel through barriers of space and time, and shape-shifting, requiring full viewer attention to keep track of who, where, and when, but this how dreams really are and the film engages on that same subconscious level. As with Miyazaki's previous work ('Spirited Away', 'Kiki's Delivery Service'), the emphasis here is on creating a beautiful alternate reality, where anything can happen and every frame is a breathtaking work of art.

DAILY TELEGRAPH
"The most enchanting film of the year"

Customer Reviews

Magical
See some of the other reviews if you want more detail, but I'm just going to say this film is brilliant. You'll be wishing life was as cosy as this! It just fills you with a warmth from beginning to end. It's definitely on a par with my other favourite animated film, the zany Spirited Away which you must also watch. I viewed it in English, which some say is taboo, but either way you're going to love it. When you buy this it will truly be an unregrettable DVD purchase. Actually, stop reading these reviews and buy it now!

Magic of The Movies
This Anime-style adaption of the great book of the same name by British children's author Dianna Wynne Jones is a worthy version of that story and a work of art in its own right.

The art, particularly the Monty Python style Moving Castle, is brilliantly realised. The characters are well established, even the bad guys are given time to develop, and the plot races along without crashing once. Humour and pyrotechnical battle scenes enliven the story without seeming out of place or gratuitous.

The book, inevitably, has more space to develop the crucial relationship of Howl and Sophie, and sadly many of the pleasingly bizarre episodes in the original: e.g.the mighty wizard Howl's brief return to his Welsh roots, are not translated to the screen. Overall, the humanist tone of Dianna Wynne Jones' work is well captured in this film.

Some readers may find rather too much emphasis placed on violent conflict in this cartoon, particularly in its latter stages, but equally,fantasy film fans may be pleased at this level of exciting action, not present in the book.

In all, a very interesting and enjoyable film that will hopefully gain DWJ some more fans too.

Excellent
This is perhaps the most accessible of the Studio Ghibli productions for the UK audience ( closely followed by Kiki's Delivery Service )

Unlike "Spirited Away" ( with it's Japanese bath houses and radish spirits ) this has a more british edwardian or european feel for the first half before the bombing sequences

Yes there are gaps in the back story and it does vary from the original book but on its own merits this is a masterpiece