Howl’s Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese Studio Ghibli animation written and directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Howls Moving Castle blends fantasy, multiple kingdoms, wizardry, romance and strong anti-war messages.
A young woman called Sophie is a victim of a spell cast on her by the Witch of the Waste, who transforms her into a 90-year-old woman. To try and break the curse she follows a turnip head scarecrow to Howls Castle and jumps onboard as a cleaning lady. While onboard she befriends Howls apprentice Markl and a fire demon named Calcifer, who makes a deal with her to help her break the spell.
To sub or the dub? The English dub of Howls Moving Castle stars Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Lauren Bacall, Christian Bale (on top form), Josh Hutcherson and Billy Crystal (particularly brilliant as Calcifer) and is recommended.
Howls Moving Castle has stunning animation and weird and wonderful characters so it is no surprise that it scores very highly for recommendability, even slightly lower scores for small screen still give it a very respectable overall rating of 4.31.
| Recommendability | Repeat Viewing | Small Screen Score | Engagement | Overall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Em | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4.5 | 4.37500 |
| Clare | 5 | 4.75 | 4 | 4.5 | 4.56250 |
| Helen S | 4.5 | 3 | 5 | 4.5 | 4.25000 |
| Kobi | 4.75 | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | 4.06250 |
| 4.8125 | 3.9375 | 4 | 4.5 | 4.31250 |
Episode #243 Crew Links
Thanks to Episode #243 Crew of Em (@EmWillDoIt) and Clare (@clareellenhope) from VerbalDiorama and wratedpod
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More about Howls Moving Castle
For more info on Howls Moving Castle, you can visit Howls Moving Castle IMDb page here or Howls Moving Castle Rotten Tomatoes page here.
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