A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, turns into an old woman, and is unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother's hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl and insinuates herself into his household. Sophie befriends Calcifer, the fire demon who powers the castle and who is bound to Howl by a contract, the terms of which Calcifer cannot reveal. They promise to help each other with their problems. Like Calcifer, Howl can also see through the Witch's spell, and he and Sophie fall in love. Sophie helps Howl confront his former teacher, and the Witch of the Waste. (from IMDB)
it's romantic and soppy, basically every romantic's dream tale but sweet as well, to the point of being absolutely nauseatingly so. I liked it because of that romantic basis but what struck me about it was that it all seemed so obligatory - and another thing, although beautiful, Howl was a narcissist, hence an absolute DICK! but he did change close to the end of the film. Grudgingly i have to admit this was a good movie. the plot was almost flawless. but it could have been better - much better.
I read the children's novel this film was based on before I saw the movie, BIG mistake. The movie diverged in a big way from the book with the war that took place in the movie; I felt the movie was too preachy in its anti-war message. The animation was great, but my thinking kept dragging me back to the book so I have to say that this movie was average. If you haven't read the book, you may come to think of this as a great movie.
