Sophie Hatter is a, err, hatter – that is, she makes hats for a living. She works in the hat shop left to her family by her father, whilst her mother spends her time trying to court rich men and her far prettier sister works in a bakery. One day whilst going shopping, she is accosted by two soldiers who would rather like to get to know her better, but is saved by a handsome young man with a knack for magically flying. Unfortunately, it turns out he is being chased himself, and whilst they escape and go their seperate ways, Sophie finds her hattery visited by the wicked Witch of the Waste.

The Witch of the Waste decides to curse Sophie with a curse she can’t actually tell anyone else about – she becomes an old woman (although what exactly the curse is is pretty vague here – it seems more like she appears as old as she thinks herself to be, as her apparent ages varies hugely from shot to shot). Running away from home to the mountains, she saves a scarecrow from a hedge, who in exchange leads her to shelter – the huge, walking building known as Howls Moving Castle, owned by the infamous womanising wizard Howl. Howl, of course, turns out to be the handsome young man she had met a day earlier, and despite her different appearance he doesn’t seem to have a problem with her inviting herself to stay as his housekeeper. So, Sophie ends up living with Howl, his young assistant Markl, and the fire demon Calcifer. Calcifer, realising that Sophie is under a curse, makes a deal – if she breaks the contract with Howl which is keeping him there, he’ll break the curse placed on her.

Oh, and there is also some crap about a war and the military wanting to enlist Howls skills.

Being a long term Miyazaki fan, I was expecting to have a lot to say about Howls. Unfortunately, I don’t. Its an extrordinately pretty movie throughout, and there are some amazingly animated set pieces, and the fairly subdued and unintrusive use of CG is impressive. Howls castle itself, a hotch-potch of sliding, deforming tiles, is a spectacular piece of design and animation, and the background art, whilst often cluttered, is always detailed and beautiful.

Unfortunately, all the pretty animation in the world can’t save this movie from the fact that it is incredibly tedious. As a fan, the movie is quite simply crushingly disappointeding. There is no real plot or substance to the movie either – it just moves along with a complete lack of focus (or, for that matter, logic). There isn’t even much of a sense of humour to liven things up, and the movie is just altogether far too dry.

I really don’t know what else I can say about it. If you are a sucker for pretty animation it may well be worth you taking a look once, but otherwise its simply a difficult movie to recommend – and I’m devastated about it.