Make it make sense!
The art and the animation were marvellous, but that's about the only good thing about this film.
Many people pointed out that the plot is very confusing, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think the main problem is that we only get bits and pieces of information about everything. There is not a single plot point that is carried from start to finish.
First, an evil witch casts a spell on Sophie, which causes her to have an old body. It is pointed out that a mere human cannot break that spell, and that is literally the only information we get about the spell for the entirety of the film. Sophie becomes younger or less young throughout the film for no apparent reason, but the spell is never actually broken. At the end, Sophie is young, and she seems to stay that way, but her hair is still grey just like when she was old, so the spell is not broken, even at the end of the film.
Next, the evil witch is only evil at the beginning, because then the king's witch takes her powers away and leaves her as a helpless old woman. This point is, again, very confusing, because WHY would the king's witch wait until now? And then, for some reason, Sophie takes the evil witch to live with Howl and Michael in the moving castle. After that, the witch's behaviour is so confusing: is she good? Is she bad? Is she senile? We will never know.
Next, there's the king's witch. The film wants us to be sort of against her because she wants Howl to obey the king and go to war. But then, Howl's squad takes her dog to live with them??? Even thought they absolutely do NOT want her to find them???
Then, there's this plot point that is introduced, where it is said that if Howl turns into a sort of bird demon too often or for too long, he won't be able to come back to his human form. Of course, it is not explained why or how, and it's actually never a real problem in this story. Howl always comes back to his real form with no difficulty.
Finally, there's this war plot happening in the background, but we never get to know why, or against who or whatnot. It gets even more confusing because many of the war aircraft that bomb the cities in here actually seem to come from the king's witch, so the king is literally bombing his own country? And that could, of course, be a purposeful aspect, but then it should be discussed more, or it should have consequences. Here, it just seems nonsensical.
Oh, and worst plot twist of them all: the scarecrow turns into the prince of the enemy country??? Throughout the film, there is this scarecrow that helps Sophie because she got it out of a bush it was stuck in. At the end of the film, Sophie kisses it for some reason, and it truly turns into a prince???!!! And apparently, it's because he had to be kissed by someone he loved to break his curse??? Yet again, we know nothing about this person, about his curse or about why he loves Sophie.
All in all, we just don't know anything about anything. Who is Howl? What is his goal? Who is the king's witch? Why does she decide at the end of the film to put an end to the war? Why not before? What exactly is the link between Howl and Calcifer because I didn't get that either?
I would not watch this again.
The art and the animation were marvellous, but that's about the only good thing about this film.
Many people pointed out that the plot is very confusing, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think the main problem is that we only get bits and pieces of information about everything. There is not a single plot point that is carried from start to finish.
First, an evil witch casts a spell on Sophie, which causes her to have an old body. It is pointed out that a mere human cannot break that spell, and that is literally the only information we get about the spell for the entirety of the film. Sophie becomes younger or less young throughout the film for no apparent reason, but the spell is never actually broken. At the end, Sophie is young, and she seems to stay that way, but her hair is still grey just like when she was old, so the spell is not broken, even at the end of the film.
Next, the evil witch is only evil at the beginning, because then the king's witch takes her powers away and leaves her as a helpless old woman. This point is, again, very confusing, because WHY would the king's witch wait until now? And then, for some reason, Sophie takes the evil witch to live with Howl and Michael in the moving castle. After that, the witch's behaviour is so confusing: is she good? Is she bad? Is she senile? We will never know.
Next, there's the king's witch. The film wants us to be sort of against her because she wants Howl to obey the king and go to war. But then, Howl's squad takes her dog to live with them??? Even thought they absolutely do NOT want her to find them???
Then, there's this plot point that is introduced, where it is said that if Howl turns into a sort of bird demon too often or for too long, he won't be able to come back to his human form. Of course, it is not explained why or how, and it's actually never a real problem in this story. Howl always comes back to his real form with no difficulty.
Finally, there's this war plot happening in the background, but we never get to know why, or against who or whatnot. It gets even more confusing because many of the war aircraft that bomb the cities in here actually seem to come from the king's witch, so the king is literally bombing his own country? And that could, of course, be a purposeful aspect, but then it should be discussed more, or it should have consequences. Here, it just seems nonsensical.
Oh, and worst plot twist of them all: the scarecrow turns into the prince of the enemy country??? Throughout the film, there is this scarecrow that helps Sophie because she got it out of a bush it was stuck in. At the end of the film, Sophie kisses it for some reason, and it truly turns into a prince???!!! And apparently, it's because he had to be kissed by someone he loved to break his curse??? Yet again, we know nothing about this person, about his curse or about why he loves Sophie.
All in all, we just don't know anything about anything. Who is Howl? What is his goal? Who is the king's witch? Why does she decide at the end of the film to put an end to the war? Why not before? What exactly is the link between Howl and Calcifer because I didn't get that either?
I would not watch this again.