Hi there, it's Lilly here! I think I made it pretty obvious that tittles aren't my thing, but that aside, Howl's Moving Castle is a legend. If you haven't watched it, you are so missing out on one of the greatest meanings of life.
Although this movie is quite old, I only watched it around half a year ago by accident. I was flicking through Netflix with a bowl of ice-cream when I dropped some ice-cream on my clothes, and thinking about how many times I faint out of fear when someone jump-scares me, it wouldn't be that much of a surprise to know that I leaped off my couch with as much enthusiasm as a kangaroo.
Sure, call me clichéd, but the remote fell and clicked on the movie. Going against my brain, I clicked on the play button despite Howl's creepy face on the cover image and . . . surprise! I fell in love with it! I'll also be sharing my experience watching the movie with you guys, so you can consider yourself lucky!
(Warning: Spoilers)
Summary:
Sophie, the main protagonist is a kind and hardworking hat-maker and eldest sister of three who believes that she is ugly. When visiting her bright sister, Lettie, she meets up with a wizard named Howl who helped her escape from some shady guards.
When returning home, Sophie meets the wicked Witch of the Waste (and, no, this isn't a typo) who suddenly turns Sophie into a 90-year-old woman! The next day, Sophie runs away from home and travels to the country side in the hopes that she could find a way to break the curse.
She encounters another magical creature: a living scarecrow! Sophie named the scarecrow Turnip Head and he leads her to Howl's Moving Castle where she enters, uninvited. Sophie earned the honour to meet Howl's adorable but grumpy apprentice, Markl and a hardworking fire demon, Calcifer.
Sophie made a deal with Clacifer that if she could make Howl set Calcifer free, Calcifer would break her curse. When Howl returns home, he isn't that surprised to find Sophie where she explains that she somehow hired herself to be the cleaning lady.
The king sends a letter to Howl ordering him to fight in the upcoming war, but he sends Sophie instead who was told to pretend to be Howl's "Mother". Howl gives Sophie a magical ring that can direct her to Calcifer safely.
Sophie then meets the Witch of the Waste again who she slowly gets closer with as well as Suliman, the kingdom's top sorceress. Suliman then drains the magic out of the Witch of the Waste and returns the Witch back to her real image without any magic.
Suliman warns Sophie that Howl will become just like the Witch if he doesn't fight for the king, but Howl came in right on time to rescue Sophie. Suliman tries her best to turn Howl into a monster so he couldn't escape but her hard work goes in vain because both Sophie and Howl escapes successfully.
The pair brings along the Witch and Suliman's dog, Heen. While that's happening, soldiers break into the home of Jenkins and Pendragon (basically Howl's other names) but, since the house never stays in one place, they open the doors to an abandoned warehouse.
Sophie then realises Howl's sacrifice to try to slow down the process of the war by turning into the monster mentioned before, or a bird, by using Calcifer's magic, even though it makes it hard for him to turn back into a human.
When the duo return home from the palace, Howl links the castle to Sophie's old home at the hat store. Not long after, the town is bombed by an enemy aircraft because of the war and Suliman's magical henchmen destroy the house and Sophie's hat shop.
Howl flies off to protect his new family whilst Sophie moves everyone out of the house and takes Calcifer from out of the fireplace, which causes the house to collapse. The Witch, who was once in love with Howl, notices that Calcifer has Howl's heart and grabs the heart from him, where she got herself on fire.
After dousing some water on the two, the last of the castle divided into two and Sophie's part leaned over and fell into a chasm. Separated, Sophie followed the glowing charm ring where she stumbles upon a scene from the past.
She see's young Howl catch a falling star (Calcifer) and gifts Calcifer with his heart. When Sophie was about to be teleported away, she calls to Howl to "find her in the future, I know how to help you" where she was brought back to the present.
Sophie finds Howl and reunites with the rest of the group, the Witch gives back Howl's heart to Sophie, where our heroine places it back into Howl, bringing him back which also frees Calcifer, though the fire demon decides to stay.
Sophie reverts back to her young form but her hair stays white to show her maturity from what she experienced and what she went through. Sophie kisses Turnip Head on the cheek in thanks for sacrificing half his stick to prevent Sophie from getting hurt when falling down the chasm.
Surprisingly, he turns into a prince known as Justin! He explains that only a true love's kiss could change him back, but seeing how happy Sophie was with Howl, he stopped his pursuit and instead, planned to head back home to stop the foolish war. Suliman, spying on Howl and Sophie through a crystal globe also decides to end the war.
A long time later, a snippet of Sophie and Howl's happy life together is revealed with them settling in a green countryside, watching the warships fly back home. Sophie, Howl, Calcifer, Markl, Heen and the Witch then turn to the opposite direction, where they face a New Moving Castle.
My Reaction
Of course, summarising the movie isn't anywhere near as good as watching the actual movie, but I did do my best. Let's start at the beginning of the movie! I don't really understand why Sophie believes she's ugly, honestly, she's gorgeous!
Not to mention her talent for designing, she's really gifted! Meeting Lettie was also a pleasure, she had a personality of an enthusiastic puppy.
When Soph was walking home, I was terrified of those guards who cornered her in the alleyway, it was because of that that I couldn't walk home by myself for a week, I had to drag my friends home along with me and carried bug spray around with me at all times.
But, like they said, a rainbow can never appear without rain! Our male lead, Howl, finally made his dramatic entrance! Looking as cool as a superhero, he came in with his stunning blonde hair and signature jacket (which, surprisingly, never seems to fall off). He saved our female lead from those thugs and escorted her while flying, I cannot be the only one who squealed my heart out at the sight.
I was really annoyed at the Witch of the Waste, I mean, our female lead was just minding her own business when she came in and turned Sophie into a 90-year-old woman! Clearly, she hasn't been taught common etiquette. (But at least Sophie still had decent hair)
Sophie's family was pretty nice in general, so I was a bit disappointed when she revealed that she was going to leave. But, in the very least, she met another magical creature! A scarecrow! And, no, this isn't like Dorothy's trip down the yellow brick road, the scarecrow led her to Howl's Moving Castle!
But, I totally agree with Sophie when she said that the castle hardly looked like a Castle and more like a dump. I mean, I didn't expect Howl to be a clean freak, but couldn't he at least wash the dishes?!
Markl and Calcifer were the absolute cutest characters in the movie! They both try to look so tough but their such cinnamon rolls! But Howl is the complete opposite, he seems like a cinnamon roll but he also has the power to destroy you in one second.
Sophie meeting Howl was hilarious! Her logic to somehow employ herself was so awkward, but, still enough for Howl to accept her. (See what I mean when saying that their meant for each other?!)
Although I didn't add this in the summary, one of the most iconic parts of the movie was when Howl started calling the spirits of darkness. Seeing Howl go through such depression just because his hair got dyed to blue was priceless!
He said and I quote: "There's no reason for me to live if I can't be pretty", which reminded me of my childhood tantrums back when I was five.
But, in my heart, the funniest part will always be when Sophie and Witch of the Waste climbed up the stairs to the castle! The producer really exaggerated the pain when it comes to climbing up stairs! I know it may sound cruel of me, but seeing the Witch suffer made up for that wicked spell she cast on Sophie!
But their relationship did improve to the point where Sophie considers the Witch as a friend. Unlike, Suliman to ruthlessly tortures her guests!
When the Witch sat on that chair and Suliman drained the magic out of her, the screams made me have nightmares!
At least Howl came in at the right time to save our Sophie, the dog, Heen and the Witch. Seeing Howl turn into a monster kind of freaked me out but Sophie was able to remind him who he truly is (so cute UwU)
Learning more about Howl and his sacrifice made me tear up. At first I thought he was that typical cold male lead, but he reveals himself to be a kind, caring and extremely cute!
Another reason why Howl is one of the greatest hubby's out there is because: he magically connected Sophie's old home to her new! That's not something a basic hubby would do (which is really sad and also sometimes a bit depressing, but it's life).
But that happiness is soon forgotten as the rise of war worries everyone. Suliman and her stupid henchmen came in and started destroying Howl's generous gift! I was squeezing my pillows with anger so hard at this point! That was a token of Love!
Howl sacrifices himself once more to protect his new family while Sophie is in charge of escorting everyone out of the house. We see our Queen leading her family to safety, but then the Witch had to destroy this significant moment by stealing Howl's heart!
Nuh-uh! First of all, it already belongs to Sophie and second of all, if you don't give it back to Calcifer, he'll die!
Sophie pours water over them to try and help, but instead, she falls into a pitch-black chasm. But like I said before, you can't see a rainbow without experiencing rain. We got to see a miniature version of Howl! That was an ultimate, life-changing score for me!
When the whole group is reunited, Sophie feeds Howl his heart. Because of that, she also turned back to her original age but kept the white hair. If I though Sophie looked pretty before, now she looks stunning! White hair looks fabulous on her! She looked exactly like an angel!
But, when Turnip-head (the Scarecrow) turned into a prince, I felt a bit guilty about Sophie and Howl's love. I know, I'm probably destroying 100 fangirl rules by saying this, but Turnip-head really did love Sophie.
I just feel really bad for all the side male leads, it's a natural occurrence!
Finally, the war is stopped and the lovey-dovey duo can finally settle! Seeing them stand together with their perfect hair was enough to make my heart explode. It's a curse to be single so I called a few of my friends to make sure I wasn't alone. T_T
The six actually look like a family! Except for the fact that Calcifer was a flying blob of blue light, it was picture perfect. Seeing them together like that and knowing that they can finally live together in peace was definitely the happiest thing I saw the whole day, I was crying by the end of the day.
This movie definitely earned it's place among the greatest of all animation! I'm a proud, die-hard fan and anyone who dares insult the movie can face the wrath of a loyal fangirl!
I really enjoyed watching and reacting to this movie. If you have any other suggestions about anime movies (or anything else really) that you'd like me to react to, I'd love to hear your requests!
Love,
Lillian
Cant wait to hear more!