Miyazaki’s eagerly awaited follow-up to SPIRITED AWAY is a freestyle adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s novel and a delight for all fans of the Japanese animators, Studio Ghibli. Cursed by the Witch of the Waste to take on the form of a 90-year-old woman, but unable to explain her predicament, Sophie soldiers on undeterred. She finds a job as a cleaner in a clanking walking castle with huge chicken legs, smokestacks and wings. Within, dandified wizard, Howl, his assistant and a talking fire-sprite use their sorcery as a military weapon, outwitting warmongering factions and battling inner demons. As if conceived by Hieronymous Bosch himself, the intricate castle design is the centrepiece of an enchanting animation that is brimming with imaginative treats from start to finish.
