Love comes first.
Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.
Really good movie staging in a fictional center European country. The drawings are great and the story is as delicate as any other from Miyazaki.
Certainly my favourite Miyazaki film. The animations are a touch angular, but colourfully and stylishly depict this story of a beautiful young girl who is cursed by an evil witch. In despair, she sets off, directionless, from home and comes across "Howl" and his moving castle - and the sprite "Calcifer". She begins a journey of discovery - about herself as much as anything. "Howl" - the ultimate free spirit is also facing down demons of his own that he is struggling to reconcile with. "Calcifer" provides the conduit for them to get to better understand each other and also much of the humour as they seek to break the spells that bind them. This works on many different levels and each time I see it, I seem get something different from it.
