One common misconception about animation is that it is for children. Most fairy tales are animated so that children can enjoy them. Cartoons that are not fairy tales are often considered silly and not intellectual. However, Hayao Miyazaki has far overstepped that boundary of children’s animation. He has created a fairy tale like story that anyone can enjoy. Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki’s last film, was written by a British writer, Diana Wynne Jones. Howl’s Moving Castle is an adventure of an unfortunate young girl who is turned into an old granny by an evil witch and must find a way to cure her curse. Where most producers would have declared the idea farfetched, Miyazaki stuck with the story. After all, who would read a love story of an old woman and a selfish, insecure wizard? Just as Peter Jackson revitalized the story of Hobbits, Miyazaki brings life to Jones’s story. Even though the film is animated, Miyazaki’s beautiful art work, vivid colors, lighting, and even the movements of his characters make the film more realistic. Unlike many cartoon films, Miyazaki heavily incorporates mise-en-scene and cinematography.

            Howl’s Moving Castle has three stories playing out in random.  The first is Sophie’s curse, revealing Calcifer and Howl’s bargain, which in turn overlaps with an unfolding love story between Sophie and Howl that is deterred by the war between two nations. Miyazaki beautifully weaves the three threads of plot together into an amazing story. The movie starts out with a gigantic fishlike machine walking towards the audience. He also contrasts the castle with the peaceful scenery, and the clanging noise of the castle with the calm orchestral music. Only a couple of minutes into the movie, the audience is exposed to a new world, the world inside the film.

Miyazaki uses stereotypes to display certain qualities. For example, according to the film, beauty is associated with light haired, blue-eyed characters. This idea is augmented by Howl’s unwarranted depression when his hair turns brown. The complexity of the nation is viewed through the elaborate buildings. For example, the city of Kingsbury, or even Sophie’s home town, consists of beautiful and refined building, whereas the Port city is simple and bland. The capital of Kingsbury boasts tall skyscrapers, but the Port city has only low buildings. The height of the buildings represents the ego of the countries. Also, the more colorful a city, the more complicated is the city’s internal government, which determines how much magic is involved in it.

Miyazaki also uses simplicity as a symbol for innocence, purity, and freedom. Until two thirds of the way through the movie, the only simple character is Sophie. She is a dark-haired, dark-eyed girl with a simple green dress. She is therefore considered unsophisticated, and not beautiful. She is constantly contrasted with blond haired characters like her popular younger sister, her selfish, yet beautiful mother, and the spoiled magician Howl. Eventually, Sophie’s purity seeps into Howl, and both Howl and Calcifer achieve freedom.

One of the greatest achievements made by Miyazaki includes the smooth movements of his characters. Unlike most other anime, where movement is exaggerated, Miyazaki keeps the movement as close to that of real human beings as possible. Each and every movement performed by the characters seem so natural that the audience has no trouble understanding the body language of the characters.

Basic symbolism is easily incorporated into an animated film. What made Howl’s Moving Castle a phenomenal movie is Miyazaki’s assimilation of film techniques and animation. Hundreds of thousands of cell images are processed to make this film. Most of them are hand drawn. This is where an excellent cartoon show and an extraordinary animation diverge. An excellent cartoon show has the representation, but does not utilize the film techniques well, but extraordinary animated films like Howl’s Moving Castle embrace those techniques.

Miyazaki works with variety of camera angles and types of shots. He often uses long shots like Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood. Unlike Kurosawa, Miyazaki uses the long shot to reduce the amount of frames he has to create, thus reducing the work load. Most of the transitions are smooth transitions. Usually there is a link between the previous scene before the cut and the scene after the cut. The consistency helps the filmmaker save time and resource when making an animated film. But Miyazaki does not let the need to conserve time and effort cut off important transitions and camera movements. For example, Miyazaki does not hold back from zooming in and out of important areas, like when he zooms in on the plane flying with the national flag, or the dropping bombs.

But what makes this film such an extraordinary film? Miyazaki’s brilliance is only part of it. The voice actors contribute just as much as the director does. The language of each character and their voices along with the movements and scenery produce the overall atmosphere of the movie. Watching this film in Japanese and in English is like watching two different movies. The Japanese voice actor for Howl is light, carefree, and high-pitched, whereas the American voice actor for Howl is serious and low-pitched. In English version, the Witch of the Wasteland is no longer creepy, for her voice is distinctly feminine.  The voices like the rest of the film, make the character what they are.

Howl’s Moving Castle is one of Miyazaki’s fabulous work following his award winning film Spirited Away. Although written by a British author, Howl’s Moving Castle has certain Japanese culture in it, mostly the Japanese language. However, Miyazaki’s ability to unite various aspects of animation and film techniques bring the unknown story to life. This film is not only for children, but for anyone at any age. Miyazaki’s perception of monsters, creatures, and humans make any of his films something worth seeing. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the greatest animated films ever created.