Thinking about fantasy the first movie that came to mind was Howl's Moving Castle. The main story is about a young girl named Sophie who unfortunately is cursed into an old woman. Sophie beings her journey to lift the curse and right away meets Howl, a half man half bird warrior who lives in a giant walking castle. A talking fire then tells Sophie that if she helps him he will lift her curse; so she sticks around and becomes entangled in the rest of the story. Yet there is something that begins to worry her more than her age, she falls in love with Howl and learning his life as a human is coming to an end, she focuses on saving him.
To further analyze the film I will use the approach of just looking at a single image of the film, the one above. This scene is cut across the middle combining both the simple life of a farmer and the whimsical and complex castle in the background. It suggests that an everyday person is in fact destined for change and something great. Which is true, nearly every aspect of Sophie's life changes: everyone she knows, where she lives, her worries, her age and most of all her goal. She is uprooted out of her life like one of the castles feet from the ground. The fog in the distance portrays the mystery and unknown of the future as much of the movie has you question and forces you to just accept things that are unreal.
As any good movie Howl's Moving Castle teaches strong morals. Such morals are good versus evil as depicted in the war going on. Another is that not everything is what it seems, seen in the many transformations of the characters such as Howl turning into a bird, Sophie becoming old and the scarecrow turning out to be the lost prince. A third moral is that we're all good on the inside, revealed when the once evil witch that cursed Sophie befriends her. A last being that love triumphs all, love is what ended the curse and love is what returned Howl's heart.
For anyone in search of a unique fantastical film that both engages you in the story and well crosses the border of reality I highly suggest Howl's Moving Castle.
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