in Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's trademark style of balancing adorable whimsicality with clever details and fascinating worlds carries on in this animated adventure which is an adaptation off of a European novel. Howl's Moving Castle has all of the pieces of a good Miyazaki film: The innocent main character, the misguided people who turn out not being antagonists, the adorable/humorous side-characters that follow the protagonist and the mysterious force or person who drives the magical mystique of the film. In analysis, it may come off a bit formulaic, but it's really quite very enjoyable and just unique enough from most of his latest work to hold it's own easily. I haven't decided where it rates by comparison to Princess Mononoke, or Spirited Away, but then again, that's the beauty of Miyazaki's work: It is consistently of excellent quality every time.You should all go and see this film.

You will especially enjoy this movie if you like some of Miyazaki's earlier work like Naussica or any kind of Steam-punkish, Turn-o-the-century-world anime. Although, the real awesomeness of Miyazaki's high-flying airship-bomber and steam-powered world is that it works flawlessly with the fantasy elements of this world being full of wizards, witches and unexplained super-natural forces. It is awesome.

# posted by H_R : 1:03 PM