Howl's Moving Castle - Absolute Perfection from Studio Ghibli

Howl's Moving Castle(100/100) 

This is my very close second favorite Studio Ghibli movie. It has wizards, witches and wars. Everything you could want in a movie. Beautiful scenery and exciting magic...also some very interesting life lessons to be learned. Howl's Moving Castle has a easy to follow storyline that most children will be able to follow and love. If you are not a child don't worry about getting too bored because the storyline is intense enough to keep everyone of all age groups interested.


This is truly a magical tale about two people who fall in love.



A quick summery:
The story starts out with a young girl who is a hat maker. Unfortunately it seems she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...however after you watch the movie a few times you will realize her fate gets tied into that of Howl's and the entire storyline is destined to happen over and over and over again. The young hat maker is closing up her shop when an ugly woman enters the place and curses the young girl so she will eventually meet up with Howl and deliver a letter.
The moving castle itself doesn't look much like a castle at all but a sort of run down collection of buildings on moving legs. As we proceed through the movie we learn the castle is magical and being held together mostly by the power of a fire demon who has made a deal with master Howl.
The wizard in question is fighting both sides of the war trying to make the senseless struggle end. He has at least two aliases and two places of residence in either of the major cities that are at war. He eventually gets called to serve in the war for both sides.

Eventually he keeps pushing his magical skills too far and turns into a massive raven when he fights off the battleships. After too much longer the storyline gets a little tangled and you will have to see it to believe
 it....so I certainly suggest watching this movie.

At the very end of the movie we get a glimpse of his new and improved moving castle....if you are like me then seeing castle in the sky is something only in dreams.

Princess Mononoke - Lady Eboshi

The Mistress of Iron Town

Lady Eboshi

This woman is very cold and logical. In feudal china it was amazing to find a woman in charge, and yet all of her employees love her. She is mean, but only when it is necessary....she is deadly only when profitable.



This woman is the reason the story gets started in the first place. If you consider the thought...if she had not manufactured bullets and guns to get rid of the massive beasts the protect the forest then the deamon monster would not have attacked Prince Ashitake and he would not have had to leave his village to never return.

Iron Town

Lady Eboshi employs many different sorts of people that have fallen through the cracks of society and were in serious need of a place to stay. She went to every pleasure house in the valley to buy up all the girls contracts so she could have someone to pump the bellows all day every day.
Then she employed people suffering from leprosy. She took them in bandaged them up and taught them how to make guns.
She is a double edged sword...everything nice she does is for a profit, but still a very strong and deep character.
Here we can see her taking the head of the god of the forest after she shot its head off. Notice the poor little kodama cannot survive anymore without their father.

Lady Eboshi - Gods Head