Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
An amazing new animated adventure that celebrates the power of love to transform and the resiliency of the human spirit in the face of adversity. (Disney)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki
Written By: Hayao Miyazaki, Diana Wynne Jones
Starring: Chieko Baishô, Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Josh Hutcherson, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Akihiro Miwa
Genres: Romance, Family/Kids, Fantasy, Animation
AKA: Howl no Ugoku Shiro
Country: Japan
Where to Stream
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Howl's Moving Castle belongs to 72 collections
1. IMDB Top 250 (public: moderated by ppinocchio - 120 stars)
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3. Studio Ghibli (public: moderated by Vandelay1 - 32 stars)
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5. Female protagonist (public: moderated by djross - 25 stars)
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Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 8 |  |
BeeDub | 78 39% |
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I love Miyazaki, and there's much to like here (the animation and music are, as ever, top-notch), but the story is a hopelessly jumbled and confusing mess, making it near-impossible to understand or care about the characters. Easily Miyazaki's weakest film.
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| 7 |  |
Grit | 81 87% |
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Another wonderful Ghibli film full of personality and charm. Captivating, lively and involving it will grip your attention right until the end. Calcifer and Turnip-Head definitely go down as two of the most enjoyable characters I have seen recently in film. Howl's might not be quite as sublime as some of the finest Miyazaki offerings, but is still damn good by any standards.
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| 6 |  |
Paxton | 70 63% |
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There's a lot to take in. As someone who dragged their son to see 2001: A Space Odyssey when they were only six years old, I still felt like this was over both our heads.
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| 5 |  |
CinematicESP | 79 43% |
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It's hard not to fall in love with the worlds Miyazaki creates. Animation is fantastic. I like the darker territory explored here. Not my favorite work of his, but still undeniably great.
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| 4 |  |
walkabout | 65 53% |
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a weaker turn from Miyazaki. The second half of the film is totally out of focus and the final part is so rushed.
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| 3 |  |
Crayola25 | 91 96% |
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love the story, really original. I enjoy all the little details he adds people might not always notice. Billy crystal is funny and seems perfect for his character.
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| 3 |  |
psim | 84 89% |
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The way this movie starts, it might be a Disney fairy tale: an evil witch, a transformation spell, a good-looking prince, a precocious kid, a funny monster sidekick. But then gradually a war breaks out, the evil witch gets adopted into the protagonist's makeshift family and the movie turns into something else. Beautifully animated.
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| 3 | sebageek | 81 53% |
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Not one of Miyazaki's best, but I'd rather see "not one of Miyazaki's best" than a lot of other films.
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| 3 | patabongo | 58 9% |
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I am a massive Miyazaki fan, but I still couldn't tell you what the hell this was about. When you can honestly say that the best thing about a film was Billy Crystal's contribution to the dub, you know you're in trouble.
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| 3 |  |
ozymandius10 | 60 38% |
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There are very many Miyazaki films that are better than this. It just felt really rushed (although the animation is beautiful, but that's a given) and there were some plot points that they never explained. You shouldn't have to read the book to fully enjoy the movie (but people tell me that's what I should do).
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| 2 | Fliers | 70 14% |
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Thought this was one of his messier films.
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| 2 |  |
Obdurate | 85 80% |
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Despite some sloppiness here and there, this is a great flick. Memorable characters, great animation with fantastic images and a really happy ending... and sometimes that's what you want!
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| 2 | Q31 | 92 61% |
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Wonderful film, with beautiful art, fun characters, an intriguing story, and a lot of heart. I didn't understand all of it, and was often confused about the motives/back stories etc. of the characters and the story, but it was still great fun to watch and a lovely movie.
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| 2 |  |
Luna6ix | 81 77% |
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quite fanciful and full of whimsy, the whole concept invokes a feeling of childish mystery. the ending severely suffers from being too neatly wrapped up by conincidental resolution and all in the last five minutes, almost as if it were a deus ex machina ending, but ends up only affected by chance, and consequently is cheesy and contrived.
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| 2 |  |
Magb | 80 61% |
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Miyazaki films always play fast and loose with the rules of their own fictional worlds. In films like Spirited Away you genuinely have absolutely no idea what's coming next, which is part of the charm. In this film, the mysterious rules of reality occasionally get a bit frustrating. That said, this is a very enjoyable film. It does have a bit of a "Miyazaki by numbers" feel to it, but I guess it just goes to show that somewhat generic Miyazaki still beats the majority of animation out there.
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| 2 |  |
Leonardis | 96 91% |
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Again, Hayao Miyazaki has crafted an insanely bizarre and interesting world with insanely bizarre and interesting characters. I love that the lead has to figure out how to find self-love and see her own beauty. That was a very nice touch. Sophie is a great character, and the others are all charming or likable. Animation is definitely some of Ghibli's very best here as well. Also, that score man. Absolutely amazing. This may perhaps be one of Hayao Miyazaki's best films.
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| 2 |  |
Green Goblin | 35 16% |
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Great animation. But the story falls short. This film is sometimes confusing. I can't find anything "beautiful", "brilliant", etc, in this film. Some characters were annoying.
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| 2 | Drewlephant | 54 26% |
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One of Miyazaki's misses for me. The meandering plot just didn't work well here and Sophie is a dull heroine. I'd much rather watch Howl have magical battles in the sky with the demons than her clean the living room.
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| 2 |  |
Ocelot | 40 31% |
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I really like the setting of this one, maybe even more than Princess Mononoke. But the entire story is kind of a mess, character motivations are somewhat bizarre and the whole thing feels just sort of haphazardly thrown together. I legitimately have no idea what even happened in the last twenty minutes. I wish it was better, because I love wizards and shit.
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| 2 |  |
Mentaculus | 90 89% |
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I saw this when it first came out with poor results. It took me years to figure out. But some tumultuous years married and now thriving, this has became one of Ghibli’s most intimate works: Both halves of the story’s pair have to learn to accept not just the best parts of the other, but also the darkest, wholeheartedly - their inner demons, whether they know it themselves or not. Howl’s Moving Castle is the moving Bridge we constantly make in our relationships to keep them, if we want to.
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| 2 |  |
djross | 60 61% |
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It seems that the attempt to reorient the material towards an (admittedly slightly unsubtle, if timely) antiwar message results in a somewhat overcrowded narrative, but the setting on which this is staged is original, charming and magical. The artistry of the animation is superior, if perhaps not quite at the level of the filmmaker's preceding effort. Some (but not all) of the characterisation is quite good. The dubbing of the English version is better than usual for these things.
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| 2 | idiot27000 | 60 31% |
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Imaginative but very poorly written.
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| 1 |  |
Xanadont | 1 23% |
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Just because it's Ghibli doesn't mean it's good: Exhibit A.
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| 1 |  |
Dullshimmer | 85 47% |
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A beautiful movie from Stuido Ghibli and I enjoyed the characters, but the story just felt a little off. I felt the story of Sophie and her curse was largely well done, but the backdrop of war and how it interacted with everything just muddied the plot quite a bit. It just felt like the world needed a bit more fleshed out to understand all that was going on. You can still kind of get the themes of the movie, but the larger story felt unsatisfying.
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| 1 |  |
Corbad | 75 67% |
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The story is too sparse to have great effectthe romance is taken for granted and just kind of happens and the war is nothing but thematic flavour (and is dispensed with far too conveniently)but the film is stunning in design and animation. Old-Sophie is a great character and the world is intriguing, so it's a shame there's not more to them or for them in the film.
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| 1 |  |
cairosmith | 60 51% |
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Fails to fully synthesize its Japanese sensibilities and characters with the details of the Western fantasy world from which it's derived. An ornate, often charming film that loses itself in a wandering diatribe against militarism.
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| 1 |  |
Jerky | 65 83% |
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What the fuck am I watching? What the hell is going on? Oh right...it's Japan. It's okay everyone, it's just Japan being Japan again. Nothing to see here, move along.
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| 1 |  |
Jimmy Suede | 82 77% |
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Very good movie, with deep motifs that I found meaningful rather than random like in a few of Miyazaki's other films. The ending was a bit unsatifying and abrupt, however. Especially the bit with the lost prince and his "true love".
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| 1 |  |
freeipods | 44 24% |
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Probably Ghibli's worst. The story it's adapted from wasn't any good to begin with and even the animation has a very ugly gloss to it that is just unpleasant to look at.
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| 1 | cutecake | 80 72% |
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I want to love this movie but it just falls flat for me compared to Miyazaki's other works. The war plot isn't particularly well done and honestly makes Howl a rather uninteresting character, which makes Sophie's love for him even stranger as she hardly interacts with him at all. This also happens to be one of Hisaishi's weaker soundtracks which relies heavily on one repeating theme and it all just leaves me disappointed. Still an interesting movie, but it could've been much more.
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| 1 |  |
joel-w-m | 9 92% |
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Ramshackle in its construction but endlessly interesting. Just like its titular house, it's a little hard to follow but there's so much to explore and enjoy here, from the intriguing anti-nationalist themes (see the contrasting flag bookends) to the characters both nuanced (see Howl's noble but immature hero; Sophie's unique coming-of-age arc) and quirky (I heart Calcifer and Turnip-Head). Beautifully animated (every one of the numerous settings is stunning) and rich in both drama and humour.
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| 1 | StarSiren | 90 95% |
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Not Miyazaki's best film, but it's still a great animated feature. I loved the story.
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| 1 |  |
DavidBlast | 50 44% |
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It's Spirited Away-light. The kids'll love it, but mnaarh..
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| 1 |  |
CosmicMonkey | 48 7% |
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The Good: Great Visuals. Tons of Steam-Punk Goodness. Billy Crystal. The Bad: Slow Beginning. Flat, Uni-Dimensional Characters with Awkward and Inconsistent Development. Jolted, Confusing and Incomplete Plot. More Background Info needed on Movie's World. Important Details left unexplained. Cheesy Dialogue in Parts. Unsatisfactory Ending. In conclusion: Easily the worst Miyazaki I've seen yet.
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| 1 |  |
eric-jan | 70 54% |
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Hmmm... I was expecting a bit more. I mean the fantasy was phenominal and the artwork was stunning, it had some tearjurkers in it and the characters themselves were pretty cool. However, the story seemed a bit off and the ending was horrible... I think the movie deserved a bit more after that amazing beginning of the movie
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| 1 |  |
Yohen | 92 97% |
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One of the best of Miyazaki.
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| 1 | Ranald | 65 44% |
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Visually beautiful and inventive, but aspects of the story such as the background war and the central romance are a bit underdone, making this adaptation not entirely successful.
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| 1 |  |
paulofilmo | 71 69% |
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A bare-seamed patchwork of fairytale and fantasy brought to life through Miyazaki's magnificent storytelling and aesthetic value. I saw the Disney dub, which was abnormally good, owing to the voice talent of English actors, matching the period dress and continental backdrops The script itself is akin to a detective story, with lots of witty clues to help elucidate the fantasy. There's also a lot of Austen and Bronte being brought to a contemporary audience with Miyazai's TM throwback panache.
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| 1 |  |
muutanet | 77 77% |
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A breathtalking animation and amazing storyline, twists and chracters. But a lots of minus points for hit by truck ending. The portal was a neat invention. There was also some snaling scenes which disturbed the main plotline. The scarecrow was a sweet character, but his part in the end was a hasty invention.
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| 1 |  |
Freder | 85 78% |
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Miyazaki's only movie based on a novel by a Western author (Dianna Wynne Jones, author of the Chrestomanci series, of which this story seems to be loosely a part) is still Wholly Miyazaki, very deep, much more than can be swallowed on one viewing, profound, wistful, full of detail and depth of vision. One of the very few foreign films of which Freder prefers the English language dub, which features the voice talents of no less than Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall and Blythe Danner.
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| 1 |  |
Spunkie | 40 24% |
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Barely passing as a Miyazaki piece. Maybe a couple of stuff lying here and there, but nothing as coherent if not cliche as any other Miyazaki. Directing an adaptation from anything well-acclaimed was unneccesary from the start.
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| 1 |  |
Nathan S | 2 21% |
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A far out imagination, several exceptionally beautiful sequences, and a unique expression of anti-war sentiment. This is by no means a bad movie, and yet, for some apparently intangible reason, it does nothing for me.
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| 1 |  |
Ytadel | 7 83% |
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After reviewing Nauiscaä, Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke, I know I'm just getting redundant, but yep, this is yet another Miyazaki fantasy full of beauty and emotion and imagination. Albeit maybe just a touch less than the three I just mentioned.
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| 1 |  |
mucow | 67 53% |
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Very pretty film, but the resolution was confused and unsatisfactory.
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| 1 |  |
BattleToad | 85 76% |
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Like Miyazaki's other films that have been popular in the US, Howl's moving castle is a beautifully animated film with a delightful fantasy story. The characters change and develop wonderfully. Really good!
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| 1 | whomperize | 83 87% |
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The animation of the moving castle is UNBELIEVABLE. Great story that seems to be less fantastic and more real sometimes than other Miyazaki films. "Meet me in the future" ends a completely mind-blowing near-ending sequence.
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| 1 |  |
eveelun | 83 88% |
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Another great feature from Miyazaki that includes his usual splendid animation, a solid and captivating story, and some very funny and cute moments/characters. The character Howl isn't my favorite, and the ending is a little unsatisfying, but otherwise a very enjoyable movie.
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| 1 | DeusAnatolia | 100 88% |
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My favourite animated film of all time. A masterpiece. I had named my teddy bear Calcifer and had the biggest crush on Howl. I probably have watched this film about 50 times in the span of 20 years. Better than the book, which is very rare. The very best. I don't know enough adjectives to define how great this movie is. My favourite movie of all times.
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| Average Percentile 67.64% from 7936 Ratings |  |