Anime Report: Howl's Moving Castle

I'm always amused by what Japanese animators think Victorian England looked like. It's like Jules Verne crossed with a fairy tale. And it's very, very clean.

Loosely based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, "Howl" is the story of Sophie, a shy girl in a Victorian-style world (it's not London, but somehow they all look alike). Sophie is resigned to a dreary life working in her family's hat shop, but two things happen: She has an encounter with a mysterious wizard and later is cursed by the dreaded Witch of the Wastes.

The curse transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman, and also forbids her to tell anyone what has happened. Seeking a way to restore her youth, Sophie sets off into the wilds, where she ends up in the chicken-legged castle (Baba Yaga reference, anyone?) of Howl, a spoiled but handsome wizard (and the same one who rescued her earlier).

Now Sophie has to break the curse, discover her own power, find true love, save her friends and stop a war, all while having assorted adventures along the way.

This is a fairy tale, and I like fairy tales. They make me happy. And there's a lot to like. The visuals are well done, and the English dubbing is fantastic -- Billy Crystal, Christian Bale, and they even got Lauren Bacall to be the Witch of the Wastes! There also are some very charming characters, including Calcifer, the fire demon bound to Howl's castle, the ever-helpful Turniphead and a funny little asthmatic dog.

Sophie, of course, is plucky, resourceful, hard-working and big-hearted -- she's a fairy tale heroine. What else could she be?

(Of course, I could get into a discussion of the butcher-job Victorians did on fairy tales in general, turning them from dark cautionary tales to pretty fluffy stories, but I'm not gonna. Catch me on a different day or read something along the lines of "From the Beast to the Blonde" or "Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales" to learn more.)

The story is sweet, but has holes -- Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away") assumes the viewer knows things that I didn't, like what the heck was up with Sophie's curse. It appears to fade away at times, then reassert itself. The relationships between some characters are sketchy -- it was never explained exactly what the history was between the king's sorceress and Howl.

Actually -- don't try to follow the story that closely. You'll just be frustrated. Enjoy the beautiful visuals and know all will turn out right in the end.