So I've just seen Howl's Moving Castle for the first time..

[Blizz]

Don't get me wrong, visually it's incredible, super charming, right up my alley, but I found the plot super confusing, I got the general themes from it (war is bad, growing up shouldn't be seen as something negative) but the story itself sounds like it's skipping around parts. The characters are charming (though I never really get why

Spoiler

The Witch of the Waste becomes good suddenly?

), the music is great too, but someone explain the film's story because I got really lost.

 

[m_shortpants]

You aren't alone. It's not regarded as a great story by any means. Despite that the art, direction, and soundtrack are the elements that keep it afloat. Also I like the dub, you see the beginnings of the Baleman voice at times lol.

 

[skeezx]

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about sums it up

what a clusterfuck of a movie

 

[FatChrispy]

Girlfriend sat me down to watch it for the first time a few weeks ago and it was great. Characters are fun (Calcifer in particular is great) and the story clicks by the end. Apparently it's waay better than the book too.

 

[Deleted member 42484]

I find this film confusing too OP, definitely not near the top of my Ghibli list.

 

[Ultima_5]

It's a pretty movie and the characters are nice but the plot isn't there. I️d check Wikipedia and see if that clears it up

 

[TangoTango]

I've only watched it once and I remember loving the art, but couldn't tell you anything about the story, cause it made no sense whatsoever to me.

 

[Ottaro]

As someone who had read the book first before watching, I too was confused.

Apparently it's waay better than the book too.

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It's been years so i can't remember my exact impressions, but I remember being pretty disappointed by the movie.

 

[Huncho_Houdini]

Yeaahhh that gif about sums it up BUT it looks amazing and the setting/characters are really great. So 9/10.

 

[CreeperBlocks]

Christian Bale as Howl is some damn good casting though in the English dub

 

[Garou]

The problem is that it's based on a book, but deviates hard in the middle into its own story.

 

[FatChrispy]

As someone who had read the book first before watching, I too was confused.

It's been years so i can't remember my exact impressions, but I remember being pretty disappointed by the movie.

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Haven't read it myself but my girlfriends big into the movie and didn't get on with the book; The writing style is supposedly quite bland. I guess it's all subjective though at the end of the day.

 

[PopsMaellard]

I think the implication is that the Witch of the Waste was innately good, just corrupted over time by greed and wealth.

It's a very postmodern feeling film with how it's cut. One of my favorite Ghibli movies despite it being a bit messy though; it's gorgeous throughout. On much later rewatches I think my only true critique is the ending feels very rushed and out of place.

 

[super-famicom]

The movie cut a lot of the book out. I read it after watching the movie in the theater and then it made a lot more sense.

 

[skeezx]

i think miyazaki has a tendency to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks, and that's not a bad thing because in his case it does stick and the stories kind of write themselves

but here... i dunno. i don't know why he couldn't stick closer to the source material but i guess that's just not his style

 

[Deleted member 24118]

When I was in the Army everybody worshipped this movie (and Spirited Away). People made me watch it maybe 10 different times and to this day I have no idea what was going on.

 

[Rune Walsh]

For me, the entire story could have been salvaged if they had spent a bit more time explaining why the world was at war. I think they mention the prince missing in passing by a random soldier. It's a good movie but I tend to turn my brain off for it and enjoy the music more than the story.

 

[affeinvasion]

It has significantly more depth than the book which is a nice 1980s fairy tale with an interesting feminist protagonist. The film is really post-modern in how it deconstructs the narrative and the characters' connection to it. It turns a fairly rote romantic fairy tale into a critique of the military industrial complex. And honestly, if you're not into all that, the art direction alone is worth it.

It's no Princess Mononoke, but I like it quite a bit.

 

[Disco]

The story does feel disjointed but holy shit its one of the best looking animated movies ive ever seen. The level of detail at times makes it more than worth watching

Plus bale's howl voice and nathan lane and the old lady were good Voice actors.

 

[N7Commander01]

The best main theme in a studio ghibli film (some people might not be ready for that conversation)

 

[Azzanadra]

Haha that was exactly my reaction when I saw it 2 or 3 years ago. The animation and the characters were solid enough to make it a movie I enjoyed overall.

 

[Deleted member 69573]

I really dont like it. I feel like the movie was more interested in showing off the backgrounds than anything else which I found super distracting, more so than most ghibli films it has a massive hard on for its own art. The way things are shot don't service the story at all.

One of their weakest outings in terms of character design as well imo.

 

[WedgeX]

When I saw it in theaters (remember when that was a thing?) I missed a gigantic plot point because I didn't hear a random side conversation between two background characters. So I get the confusion.

 

[Reym]

I loved how the movie looked when I first saw it, but I was utterly confused by the story by the end. So I bought the book to see if it cleared things up a bit. It did not as the movie deviates pretty hard, but I ended up loving the (far more coherent) story of the book. So I can't hate the movie because of the stunning visuals and because it got me to read a fun book I wouldn't have otherwise, but yeah the ending is a mess.

 

[Reym]

Apparently it's waay better than the book too.

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It's generally agreed upon that the movie is a pretty poor adaptation. (It's pretty and it's a poor adaptation. Zing!) It's totally understandable if she personally prefers the movie, because they are very different, but the book is constructed much better.

...basically the only thing I liked better in the movie was the castle itself. And I saw the movie first (I tend to have a bias toward whatever version of a thing I see/hear first).

 

[J_Viper]

The narrative is not as tight as Spirited Away, but I was captivated by the visuals and voice work.

Also I like the dub, you see the beginnings of the Baleman voice at times lol.

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Lmao this was my first thought. I saw it for the first time recent, and hearing the roots of his beloved batvoice tripped me up

 

[Lark]

I find the story interesting at the level of the individual scene, but it's true that the scenes don't come together into a coherent narrative as fluidly as one might hope. Spirited Away pulls off the same loose style of storytelling with significantly better results, I feel.

That said, the art, music, and design are some of the best in the Ghibli catalog, and it's far from a bad movie—just not the studio's best.

 

[Froyo Love]

Howl's Moving Castle is fantastic. It has a lot of stuff going on and that's fine, the fairy tale storytelling gives you everything you need to know to feel each story beat as it lands.

 

[janusff]

 

[Garlador]

I adore this movie. It's got some unexplained moments, and while I acknowledge that may not have been deliberate, I like a lot of the stuff being left up to my imagination of how and why some of the magic works and ties together.

It's in my top 3, I think, just after Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

 

[petitmelon]

I loved the book as a teen and I loved the movie as well. They're different enough from each other that I can see people being disappointed going from one to another. I remember at the film's release book fans being upset at how the film failed to capture the characters, especially Howl.

 

[Wulfric]

When I was in the Army everybody worshipped this movie (and Spirited Away). People made me watch it maybe 10 different times and to this day I have no idea what was going on.

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Idk why but this made me laugh. It's not the kind of film I would expect to be popular in the army XD

 

[Nappuccino]

I don't think it's unclear, exactly, but it moves way too fast as it transitions from the second to third act, mostly because the war and Christian Bale's role in the war are so undefined as to be nonexistent, emotionally.

 

[Stronginthearm]

I've had this on dvd for years now and I've ever watched it.

 

[Midramble]

The titular moving castle is the best part. Thats about it.

 

[carlsojo]

For me, the entire story could have been salvaged if they had spent a bit more time explaining why the world was at war. I think they mention the prince missing in passing by a random soldier. It's a good movie but I tend to turn my brain off for it and enjoy the music more than the story.

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It felt to me like Suliman was responsible for cursing the prince, starting/perpetuating the war, and so forth. They never outright say it, so it's just a theory, but she doesn't seem surprised when she sees the prince is alive.

 

[Christian]

Christian Bale as Howl is some damn good casting though in the English dub

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Billy Crystal as Calcifer is so incredibly good.

 

[Poodlestrike]

There's a lot I like about it, but yeahhhhhh it's not one of the better Ghibli movies, IMO. Stuck out worse 'cause I'd watched Kiki for the first time just the week before and that was a lot more charming and cohesive.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

It's more about the visuals, themes, and creating a certain feeling in the audience than it is focused on telling a coherent narrative.

 

[Gibson]

It's typical Miyazaki world building. He uses a soft style where little is explicitly explained, instead it's left to the viewer to make sense of things. The beauty of this style is that we can just enjoy going along for the ride alongside the characters.
Spirited Away is the same -little is actually explained - a bathhouse in another world - that's about it.
Some of his movies are more story heavy (not least such as Nausicaa) but some of them are just designed to captivate.

 

[Murder She Wrote]

I liked it a lot, but like most Ghibli movies it suffered from pacing issues.

 

[Nisaba]

It's unabashedly my fave Studio Ghibli movie because I love the way the movie explores the insecurities of Sophie and Howl plus I didn't think the plot was that hard to understand, it was interesting how the war was sort of always a backdrop and the main way to end said war was introduced really early into the movie.

But mostly, I really love Howl and Sophie. <3

 

[Kyrios]

The art is gorgeous, but yeah I wasn't particularly crazy about the rest of it.

 

[Xagarath]

The book's significantly better - it's a real underrated classic. Diana Wynne Jones doesn't get nearly enough credit in general.
The film has some great moments but doesn't hang together as well as Miyazaki's best work.

 

[Kyuuji]

Up among my favourite Ghibli films, I absolutely love Howl's Moving Castle. Can't defend it against the criticism but something heavily clicked with me and continues to each time I watch it. Just a wholly magical film.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

Howl has a couple really good scenes, but as a whole it's like watching the artifice of Miyazaki instead of the product of his heart. It's all aesthetic. It's a weird beast.

 

[WestEgg]

I actually always found the plot easier to follow than Spirited Away, and prefer Howl's to it myself.

 

[Darkspellmaster]

One of the key factors in all of Miyazaki's works is to cover the war and show a heavy Anti-war story. That's just not directly a part of the actual novel. The book covers some amazing aspects that we don't get to see in the movie and he replaces a lot with implied Japanese folklore at certain points.

As for the major changes and why it feels clunky and the plot gets weird including the witch...(warning Spoilers for the book below, and some for the sequel Castle in the Air)

Spoiler: Spoilers for Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways

To start with Howl, or Howel as his real name is, is a 20 something year old young college student from the UK (previously playing rugby in high schoo) from our world. He and his buddy a guy named Suliman (can't recall his first name) found a way to do magic and traveled to Sophie's world. Suliman and Howel met the Witch of the Waste who, in the book is really a beautiful woman...

The witch of the Waste is actually really evil in the original. Miyazaki likes to make people good for some reason. She actually has a , a connection to the teacher to Howel's nephews' and is actively trying to use them as blackmail to get him to give her his heart because he stupidly made her think he was in love with her. This is one of Howl's bigger flaws and something he has to learn to work through. She remains a dangerous character until the end nearly killing Howl. She doesn't turn good at all and a lot of her traits were given to the female Suliman in the movie.

Prince Justin is actually an important character, he is only half of the scarecrow, the other being Suliman. Both were turned into the creature by the Witch of the waste to help in screwing with the war and making it seem like Prince Justin was kidnapped by the other side. (or something like that) He actually is the second protagonist in the Castle in the Air and plays an important role in that one, more so than Howl.

Calcifer is not a shooting star. He's a fire spirit tamed by Howl. What's important here to note is Dianne used British myths heavily with this character, so he's more a trickster type than a nice character as in the movie.

Another important note is that Marco is not a kid, he's a teen actually apprenticing Howl. Sophie has two sisters, one of whom is being romanced by Marco, and one of whom Howl is trying to romance (and failing at).

The war itself is only important in that it is used basically as a way to show how irresponsible Howl is at first and that he's avoiding doing everything he can to avoid being used by the King to stop this war, even though his friend is missing (he's the turnip head) and being hunted by the Witch for his actions. Sophie is turned because the Witch is jealous of her, and she goes out of her way to cause Howl as much pain as possible.

Howl's actions in this book lead into both events for Castle in the Air, and then House of Many Ways. And, while he does grow up, we learn very quickly that Sophie is actually more powerful than him, and he can be a selfish prat about that at times as he's still a bit of a child.

Also of interest Chrispan Freeman, who voices Prince Justin, actually took the least amount of time to dub his lines, so he and the Animation team at Disney talked for the rest of the secession about Anime and Western animation and various movies.

 

[Cass_Se]

I agree with you op, I think it's Hayao Miyazaki's worst film. It's stunning and the characters are charming but the plot doesn't make a lick of sense, it's really messy and chaotic.

It really is really, really pretty however.

 

[nelsonqos]

A beautiful mess of a movie. I still love it as it has some absolutely charming moments and a lot of heart. Miyazaki's worst film, but he set the bar so so high.

The thing I love about Ghibli is that they allow a film to breathe. Moments of quiet and peace. Howl has a great moment when they are cooking breakfast that I think encapsulates this ethos. Great scene.