Howls Moving Castle

Over the weekend I watched Howls Moving Castle, a Studio Ghibli film. The films stars Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Billy Crystal, Josh Hutcherson, and Lauren Bacal. Set in a steampunk like future, the film details a hat maker, Sophie, after she is cursed into an old women by a witch. She seeks out the help of a wizard Howl but eventually get caught up in the war that has been set as the backdrop for the story. Over her time in the Moving Castle, she seeks to help howl as he had been cursed as well to transform into a bird creature but uses this to his advantage to interrupt the war. Sophie seeks to help Howl and break her curse as well. 

One of the things that I loved about this movie was the colors that were used. The one thing Miyazaki is perfect at is incorporating the colors into a background and using this to convey a mood or a scene. Whats also amazing is how dynamic these colors are. They are able to show the motion within his movies, like how water flows or how food is cooked. 

Another thing I loved about this movie was the messages they were bring conveyed with in the film itself. The film was created right after the US entered into the Iraq war and talks largely about anti-war themes. This is because