Top Movies of the Decade #53

53. Howl’s Moving Castle

I think Sophie may be my favorite heroine of the decade.  She is honest and plucky, earthy, humble and self-confident, stubborn, determined, and kind.  In “Howl’s Moving Castle,”  she is the perfect foil to the vain, insecure, flighty and powerful wizard Howl.

Filled with Hiyao Miyazaki’s trademark wondrous visuals and easy, fluid sense of fantasy and magic, as well as his love for steampunk, Rube Goldberg contraptions, “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a joy to behold.   And, like almost all of Miyazaki’s movies, it hints at — but never preaches — a wise, pacificist message, speculating about jingoism/patriotism, the misunderstandings that lead to wars, and perhaps most importantly, asking us to consider what war does to us as human beings, bodies with souls.   It is wise and tender, funny and tragic, wondrous and imaginative.