Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Hauru no ugoku shiro

Since I mentioned this movie in a review earlier today, I might as well get around to it now. I'd heard a lot of good stuff about Hayao Miyazaki and his movies, but this was the first one I've watched of his works myself.

Howl's Moving Castle have got the magic of a universe created on its own premise, and Miyazaki takes us along for a wonderful ride. The story of Sofî, Hauru and the rest of the creatures in this magic universe, is told with a lot of heart. I love heart, and I'll never deny it. Add some charm and great old-fashioned animations, and we've touched on a lot of the good stuff served here.

There's some problems as well, as the story sometimes lose pace and trips the balance between moving forward or dwell on moments. It's still a great movie, and it might even grow on me the second time around to become a personal classic, like WALL·E once did.