A heartwarming fantasy film with elements of romance and love directed by a prominent Japanese anime director, Hayao Miyazaki. The quirky characters are all full of believable emotions(the best for an animation) and the animations just look awesome. This is my first Miyazaki film and now I’m very tempted to check out his other award-winning animations as well. “Howl’s Moving Castle” is not completely immune to criticisms though. It’s a bit slow in the middle and sometimes, the story gets a bit confusing. But these are quite negligible overall and a person might certainly enjoy this little wonderful film regardless of his(or)her age. The plot, according to IMDB, is “When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking home.” Disney’s dubbed version is amazing too with Christian Bale as Howl, Emily Mortimer as Young Sophie and Jean Simmons as Grandma Sophie while Lauren Bacall plays the Wicked Witch of the Wastes and Billy Crystal is Calcifer. My favorite characters are the scarecrow and the wheezing dog. It’s amazing how they could captivate one’s attention without even speaking a word. Well, summing up, “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a brilliant piece of Japanese animation. Truly magical. 4/5