Although I was never really interested in the Ghibli films my sister always found a way for me to watch them. My sister started bugging me about Howl’s Moving Castle, but after the last movie she made me watch, I didn’t really feel like it. I finally had time to watch it and the whole storyline interested me. Howl’s Moving Castle is a Japanese animated movie made by Ghibli Studios.

Howl’s Moving Castle is full of magic, adventure, and interesting developments. One of the main characters is Sophie, who is the eldest in her family. Although she is very young, she ends up in the middle of something resulting in her being cursed. After being cursed she leaves in search of a way to undo the curse. While on her journey she finds a cursed scarecrow that follows her around. The scarecrow ends up leading her to a “fire demon” where they make a deal and she ends up working for a wizard.

Howl is a wizard who is against the kingdom but is obligated to serve it. He can be conceited but his development in the movie leads him to be mature. I like his development in the story and how Sophie plays a big part in it. Although he’s a wizard, he himself has a curse that is connected to the “fire demon”. Howl starts off being conceited, scared, and very mysterious but then he becomes so much more.

One thing that I really like about Howl’s Moving Castle is the transitions. The curse that Sophie has involves her becoming an old lady. That being said sometimes you can see through it when she says something very important to who she is. Since you can see through it, there is a very smooth transition from her older self-look to her younger self-look. Along with her look comes her voice, her voice is also very well changed to go with her appearance.

Howl’s Moving Castle involves many things in it. The animation, voice acting, characters, storyline, and development in the movie is amazing. All of these parts by themselves are very well done. When put together to actually create the movie it made something incredible. I’ve seen other movies made by Studio Ghibli and although they involve the same amount of adventure and magic they never really stuck with me. I was hesitant on watching this movie because of the ones I’ve seen from the same studio, but I was glad I did watch it because overall it was amazing and I loved it.