Howl's Moving Castle
There may be a war going on between Pixar and Dreamworks for domination of the animation movie genre that has swept through cinemas in recent years but Japanese animators Studio Ghibli have been producing high quality movies in this genre for over twenty years.
And the Pixar and Dreamworks head to head has, perhaps, overshadowed the work of Studio Ghibli of late, except to those who are already familiar with their work. If however you are new to these movies then start with the masterpiece that is Howl's Moving Castle.
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by prominent animation director Hayao Miyazaki, his mentor Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki and found major success in their native Japan but many of their movie went unnoticed in the West.
But all that changed in with Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, which were released in 2001 and 2004, that really won over the West with Spirited Away winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees).
Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl (voiced by Christian Bale), and is subsequently turned into a 90-year old woman (voiced by Jean Simmons) by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall).
Embarking on an incredible odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Markl, Howl's apprentice, and a hot-headed fire demon named Calcifer (voiced by Billy Crystal).
Sophie's love and support comes to have a major impact on Howl, who flies in the face of orders from the palace to become a pawn of war and instead risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom.
Director Hayao Miyazaki is famed for using strong female lead characters as well as regularly depicting the horrors and results of war, those trademarks are evident in most of his work.
And with Howl's Moving Castle this is no different as Sophie is the focal point of the film whose stubbornness and faith brings the best in the characters around her, especially the self obsessed Howl.
Despite having big named stars lend their voices to the film it's the animation that really shines through as the hand drawn animation really is a thing of beauty.
Many of the big studios may have moved over to CGI driven animation by Studio Ghibli has stayed true to it's roots and Howl's Moving Castle is unlike any other film in this genre around at the moment.
There are very few filmmakers that would take a scene of two elderly women struggling to get up a flight of stairs and turn it into one of the film's most memorable and funny scenes.
The vivid colours and sheers size of the project make it a real animation epic, the detail in the castle alone is worth a watch as Miyazaki highlights to the audience the beauty of the hand drawn animation, something that seems to be dying in the animation genre of late.
Howl's Moving Castle was one of the biggest blockbusters of all time in Japan, earning more than $193 million and going on to gross over $231 million in total at the global box office.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards, losing out to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, this film is the perfect way to get into Studio Ghibli's fabulous back catalogue of animation movies.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw