Miyazaki isn’t interested in the jolts of surrealism so much as imbuing his audience with the idea that reality can change at any moment, and...
Meanders so listlessly that its details become less and less charming. Miyazaki’s storytelling style resembles that of a breathless youn...
This movie often soars, blending a childlike sense of wonder with sophisticated emotions and motives.
AV Club September 26, 2005 Miyazaki’s animated adaptation of Jones' book is a charming and thoroughly absorbing treat.
Miyazaki’s gift for wonder, an ease with fantasy that makes enchantment second nature, is so great it obliterates differences in language.
A wise and wonderful parable of the passing moments of life, and dealing with both the advantages and burdens that make us individuals.
New Statesman December 8, 2014 Howl’s Moving Castle is Japanese and anime, and therefore automatically more artistic than its US counterparts. The right cultural cachet giv...
It’s not Miyazaki’s best work, but it is leagues beyond any traditional 2-D animation out of 3-D-mad Hollywood lately, and more beguili...
ae.freep.com June 17, 2005 If you’ve yet to take the anime plunge, this is a fine place to start; if you’re an old hand, you will not be disappointed.
Chicago Reader June 11, 2005 Miyazaki, now in his mid-60s, has a refreshing and persuasive way of relating youth to old age and callowness to wisdom. Rather than presentin...
TIME Magazine September 7, 2008 Palaces and shimmering lakes, warplanes and fire sprites all come to life at the breath of Miyazaki’s graphic genius.
Rolling Stone June 10, 2005 There’s a word for the kind of comic, dramatic, romantic, transporting visions Miyazaki achieves in Howl’s: bliss.
The risibly cloying closing scenes are likely to nix any remaining goodwill, blotting out such delicate early touches as a stroll through the air f...
Globe and Mail June 10, 2005 With its bold screen-filling imagery, this is definitely a movie to be relished on the big screen.
The whole thing has the heavenly whimsy of Ludwig Bemelmans' illustrations from the classic French children’s books.
Youngsters and Miyazaki fans will coo at the world’s depth and rich surreality, but opaque plotting, and a tendency to mope with Sophie...
The latest animated tour de force from the Japanese director Hayao Miyazak is a fitting introduction to one of modern cinema’s great enc...
Independent June 21, 2005 While there’s no denying Miyazaki’s visual flair and tip-top draughtsmanship, I found myself less than enchanted by the mile-high convo...
Miyazaki has an appeal that crosses generations. Adult audiences are drawn to the depth and variety of his vision, but so are kids, and for exactly...
So richly detailed and colorful that one almost aches from the beauty.
[Miyazaki] may have made better films than Howl’s Moving Castle, but it still exhibits his amazing imagination and astonishing detail.
Miyazaki is like a soulful cartographer of the soul, mapping our inner landscape, leaving us bedazzled.
New York Post June 10, 2005 Another stunningly beautiful and beguiling work of animation from Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki.
Howl’s Moving Castle moves – in short, choppy, jumpy jerks that will never make anyone forget how fluid the truly great hand-drawn carto...
At its best, Howl’s Moving Castle offers a rich fantasy of adolescent escape, of romance in the old and epic sense.
spokesman.com November 19, 2013 A strange delight awash in visual splendor, understated humor and clever body-and-soul transmogrifications among its bonny band of weirdos.
Miyazaki may not have achieved the level of Spirited Away, but he’s still ahead of the curve.
Empire Magazine September 24, 2005 As much of a hand-drawn treat as Spirited Away, chock-full of numinous sunsets, fabulous organic machinery and gratuitously delightful touches.
There’s also a pervasive, intoxicating sense of enchantment. It’s magic.
A parade of weird characters comes onstage to do their turns, but the underlying plot grows murky and, amazingly for a Miyazaki film, we grow...
Howl’s Moving Castle has the logic of a dream: behind every door lie multiple realities, one more astonishing than the next.
Slant Magazine February 17, 2005 Howl’s Moving Castle is a Hayao Miyazaki film through and through, but the film’s meta momentum is bound to disappoint fans of the...
An eye-popping, mind-bending phantasmagoria from one of the greatest living film artists.
The visuals are stunning, bursting with vivid colors and surreal inventiveness.
The Guardian December 8, 2014 A floatingly delightful fairytale with its heart set on repealing the law of gravity.
Seattle Times November 19, 2013 What you get, above all, is some enchanting flashes of classic Miyazaki and the nagging sense that something essential is missing.
