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 impatient at spectacle without meaning.
5 Comments
06/09/05
Howl's Moving Castle (2005)
85
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:144
Fresh:123
Rotten:21
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Exquisitely illustrated by master animator Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle will delight children with its fantastical story and touch the hearts and minds of older viewers as well.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Childrens
US Box Office: $4,520,887
Synopsis: Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away") takes moviegoers on an amazing new animated adventure that celebrates the power of love to transform and the resiliency of the human... [More]
Starring: Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Reviews for Howl's Moving Castle
121 - 140 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticConfirms that Miyazaki is one of the most brilliant practitioners of the cartoon feature form ever.
06/09/05
Miyazaki once again takes the breath away with his bizarre imagination and richly painted scenes.
06/09/05
The latest animated tour de force from the Japanese director Hayao Miyazak is a fitting introduction to one of modern cinema's great enchanters.
06/09/05
Top CriticMiyazaki's gift for wonder, an ease with fantasy that makes enchantment second nature, is so great it obliterates differences in language.
06/09/05
Top CriticAn eye-popping, mind-bending phantasmagoria from one of the greatest living film artists.
06/09/05
The tireless volley of ideas and inventions make this a delight that should connect with kids and adults in both dubbed and original-language versions.
06/09/05
Top CriticIt benefits from Miyazaki's abundant visual imagination, which fills the screen with eye-dazzling wonders.
06/09/05
An overly familiar affair that will strain young attention spans with its plodding lessons about greed (it's bad) and nature (it's good).
06/09/05
The characters are reserved and distant...the objects -- a flame, a scarecrow, even the machines -- seem to have more personality than the humans.
06/09/05
For the first time, the Master's wondrous imagination feels slightly... familiar.
06/09/05
One of the best films of the year with its rousing treatment of caretaking, aging, anti-war sentiments, and the bounties of the heart.
06/09/05
Prepare to be thoroughly enchanted. Prepare also to be challenged in ways that few current movies bother with, live action or otherwise.
06/09/05
The visuals are stunning, bursting with vivid colors and surreal inventiveness.
06/09/05
Howl is often impish -- the slimy black things the Witch of Waste sends after Howl wear Panama hats -- but Miyazaki never panders to moviegoers with Eddie Murphy asides.
06/09/05
Technologically adept, fevered imagination.
06/09/05
The inhabitants of Miyazaki's enchanted universe understand that spirits are as much a part of everyday life as the fishmongers and soldiers and airplanes crowding the confines of the movie frame in set-piece scenes of spectacular detail.
06/08/05
Magical send off, but overstays and over-resolves just a bit. That said, some gorgeous imagery, charming to look at, and a cast of endearingly animated characters.
06/08/05
After about 20 leisurely minutes, I swore that I could watch this movie forever, or at least several times over.
06/08/05
In animé, Miyazaki has secured the high ground.
06/07/05
Latest News for Howl's Moving Castle
August 21, 2008:
Japanese Audiences Flocking to Miyazaki's Latest 
He delighted audiences with Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle -- and now director Hayao Miyazaki is doing it all over again with his latest film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the... More...
March 20, 2007:
Will Miyazaki's Next Film Be His Last?
It's been speculated that legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki will retire after the release of his next film, "Ponyo on a Cliff," but now it looks like we'll have at... More...
October 19, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Flags" Flies High; "The Prestige" Is Magic; "Flicka" Is A Pretty Good Ride; "Marie Antoinette" Spared Critical Guillotine
This week at the movies, we've got a complex tale of heroism (Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers," starring Ryan Phillippe), a story of dueling magicians... More...
October 03, 2006:
Miyazaki Prepares Next Animation Classic
Let's face it: When the director of "Spirited Away," "Princess Mononoke," and a whole bunch of other brilliant pieces of animation announces that he's about... More...
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