Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, perhaps best known for his work with Studio Ghibli, has gained popularity around the world for his creative and imaginative animated feature films. While they were originally released in Japanese, all of them have been dubbed into English with prominent voice actors and Hollywood stars. For the next several weeks, I’ll be reviewing the English-dub versions of each of Miyazaki’s 11 films as writer and director.

Last week, I tackled Princess Mononoke (1997).

This week is our last one of the series: Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).

Synopsis: One day, Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer) has a chance meeting with the wizard Howl (voiced by Christian Bale). Even though their meeting is brief and Sophie has no prospect of seeing him again, Howl’s rival, the Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall), curses Sophie by transforming her into an old woman as a way of taking revenge on Howl. Old Sophie (voiced by Jean Simmons) leaves her family to find a way to break the curse, and ends up running into Howl’s moving castle!

Spoiler-free review: Even though I’ve now seen all of Miyazaki’s movies at least once, this one still remains my favorite, which is why I waited to watch it last for the series. I wanted to see if my feelings toward it would change. They didn’t, but other people’s feelings about it being lackluster did come into perspective. (I’ll talk about that more below.) While the story suffers from things not being explained and the animation is a bit so-so sometimes, but I still think the movie’s best quality is the overall charm of the characters and the absolutely perfect voice cast. Unlike most of Miyazaki’s movies, this is one that I have watched with the Japanese audio; and when I did, I missed the English voice cast terribly. There’s something about their performances that really brings their characters and this entire world to life. Overall, I think it’s one you should watch, but I understand why people might not like it as much as Miyazaki’s other films.

Letter grade: B

Full review and critique: (Warning: here be spoilers!)

As I said, this movie still remains my favorite among Miyazaki’s filmography, but I now understand now why people don’t like this movie as much as some of his other films. As I said on the podcast episode, this had to follow a great back-to-back outing by Miyazaki — Princess Mononoke in 1997 and then Spirited Away in 2001. And, on the heels of its very successful predecessors, this movie seems lackluster, by comparison. The animation is good, but doesn’t have the overall consistency or style that Spirited Away does. The world and creatures aren’t as imaginative; the characters aren’t as complex; and the writing isn’t nearly as tight.

Even so, by no means is it a bad movie when you look at it on its own. It doesn’t take long for the plot to really kick in, and once it does, I think you’re immediately won over by all the characters. Sophie is quiet and unassuming initially, but once she’s cursed, she takes on a lot more vocal personality, thanks in large part to Simmons’ amazing performance.

Really, there’s not a single weak link in the cast, but Bacall, Bale and Simmons are the standouts for me. Rounding out the cast is Josh Hutcherson, who plays Howl’s apprentice Markl (who’s like 10 years old). Unlike some of the child voice-actors in other Miyazaki films, neither Hutcherson nor his character is annoying at all. He gets just the right amount of screentime, but even then, I feel like if they spent 10 more minutes with him, it wouldn’t be grating or anything. Surprisingly, Billy Crystal, who plays the fire demon Calcifer, doesn’t get on my nerves either. I’m not a huge fan of Crystal’s voice acting, as I think his performance in Monsters, Inc. is a bit much sometimes; but here, I think his voice adds a little flavor to his character (probably because he’s confined to a set script and can’t riff or improv like he did on Monsters, Inc.) When I watch the movie with the Japanese voice cast, his counterpart does a great job, but there’s definitely something missing that Crystal just seems to add. And, I forgot to mention that Mortimer also does a fantastic job, despite not being in the movie very much until the third act and having to share a character with Simmons; and Blythe Danner also shines in her brief appearance as Madame Sulliman, Howl’s former master.

Another stand-out for me, which I didn’t mention in the podcast, is the music. Joe frickin’ Hisaishi brings it once again with this movie’s score, and the various musical themes are now burned into my brain to the point where just hearing them makes me want to watch this movie.

If I have one more criticism of the film that I didn’t describe above, it’s the pacing. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen it so many times, but the film seems to lose something after the sequence where Howl and Old Sophie confront Madame Sulliman and Sophie flies away with the Witch of the Waste and Heen. I think it might be because, up to this point, the movie has been very focused on Sophie and her personal journey. She gets cursed; she stumbles upon the castle; she figures out her role there; she and Howl come to a kind of understanding; and she goes to talk to Madame Sulliman for him.

After this point, though, the film tries to pack a lot into the final act, including an entire war. Yes, the war has been set up a lot in the previous two-thirds, but I think the movie tries to do too much in the little time it has remaining at this point. We have to build up more of a romance between Sophie and Howl, so he gives her the garden. We have to explain how Sulliman found Howl & co., so we get a scene with Sophie reuniting with her mom. We have to complete Howl’s arc, so he spends time protecting the hatter’s shop. We have to see that Sophie has fallen in love with Howl, so she has to uncouple the castle from the shop… but then she also wants Calcifer to take the castle back to Howl??? (That decision always confused me. You’re just putting everyone in harm’s way again, Sophie!) And despite getting several hints earlier in the film, we have to see just how Howl and Calcifer were cursed, so Sophie has to have the flashback / maybe-time travel scene. etc. It’s just a lot to get through.

We spent like 10 minutes on Sophie cleaning the castle during the second act, but then we have to cram all this into the movie in like 45 minutes or so. It’s too much. Even when I was rewatching after calling in for the podcast episode, but before I wrote this post, I stopped right before Howl and Sophie confront Madame Sulliman. Granted, I was also distracted quite a bit, but I think it speaks to the weird pacing this movie has. The first two-thirds are an absolute breeze — right up there with Porco Rosso. But the final third is a lot. Maybe someone who hasn’t seen it before or who’s only seen it once would feel differently, but I’ve probably seen this movie a dozen times now, and this is a major weak spot for me.

As I said, Howl’s Moving Castle is a movie that’s totally in my wheelhouse, because it has a great mix of action/adventure, romance and fantasy elements. And, unlike many romance subplots in Miyazaki films, this one is between two adults, so it’s more compelling than the ones between kids or tweens.

So, overall, while the animation isn’t as great as Spirited Away or Ponyo, and the story isn’t as great as Princess Mononoke, the characters are endearing, thanks in part to the great voice performances, and you’re drawn in enough to follow their journey to its end. I would say it’s worth your time, but then again, I’m biased.

Next week: I will be posting a recap of the entire Catching the Miyazaki Classics series.