Thanks to Madman we had the chance to see another Studio Ghibli masterpiece, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ (2004) directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away).

The story is about Sophie, a young hat maker living in the 19^th century who was cursed by the Witch of the Waste, transforming her into a 90 year-old lady catching the attention of a handsome wizard named Howl. Cursed Sophie suffer all pains and aches of an old woman but this doesn’t  stop her from going on an amazing adventure where she befriends a scarecrow who brings her to Howl’s moving castle to try to find a cure for her curse.

Inside this big noisy machine-like creature, she earns a job cleaning and taking care of the castle. What she doesn’t know is that the door of the castle magically opens to different kingdoms where wizardry, war, potions and strange creatures are every day norm. As her relationship with Howl deepens, Sophie begins to fight and protect him from a war of sorcery that threatens the world.

What we can say is that Miyazaki done it again! But it is unbelievable that this movie didn’t win best animated feature in 2004 when the film was released as it`s just classic as Spirited Away. As you can imagine, every little creature is perfectly animated with such care in details, including fluid and breath-taking motion in every scene.

‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ is based on a book by British author Dianna Wynne Jones and Miyazaki gave it life, beauty and fantasy with a surrealist love story reaches the heart of people of all age.

Miyazaki always wants to create a beautiful world where human play an important role in nature. Magic and superstition are beautifully represented on strange characters full of determination, kindness and love. Everything is perfectly balanced in an outstanding animations and brilliant colors. The music, from Japanese composer, Joe Hisaishi transports you into another world, adding more magic to this piece of artwork which the movie already is.

The special features on the Blu-ray include: Storyboards, Hello Mr. Lasseter: Hayao Miyazaki visits Pixar studios, an interview with Dianna Wynne Jones (Author of Howl’s moving Castle) and Pete Docter (Director of the English dub), explanations of the CG, The Sounds of Howl’s Moving castle, Behind the microphone, TV spots, original Japanese theatrical trailers and Studio Ghibli trailers.

So if you haven’t seen ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ but you have seen ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Arrietty’,’ My Friend Totoro’ you know what we are talking about. Make sure you get these magnificent movies on Blu-ray where the animation blows you away and the extraordinary quality makes a difference.

Madman brings ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, out now on Blu-ray and DVD with both versions including the original Japanese language (with English subtitles) and English dubbed versions of the film (featuring a stellar line-up including Jean Simmons – Spartacus, Christian Bale – Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Lauren Bacall – Dogville, Emily Mortimer – Hugo and Billy Crystal – Monsters Inc).

See the Howl’s Moving Castle trailer here

So don’t miss this fantastic masterpiece to add to your Studio Ghibli Collection.