Howl's Moving Castle

Ok, ok, so check it out:

This movie is kinda weird; is that typical of all animes? Now I understand why I don't enjoy watching animes. The reason why I watched this one (is it even considered anime? what constitutes an anime anyway?) is only because it is dubbed in English, and by some big stars too. Christian Bale (Howl) and Billy Crystal (Calxifer) were among the voice overs. So I thought I'd give it a try.

Firstly, Howl is a wizard, and I thought he is some powerful wizard. But somewhere in the show he got seriously upset when Sophie (the "resident cleaning lady" in his "moving castle") mixed up the potions in his bathroom when she was cleaning it out. Turns out those potions were hair dyes and because they were mixed up his hair colour came out wrong (turned his hair red instead of keeping it blond). Then he threw a hissy fit and started melting. Like, don't he know his own potions?? Well...don't sound very wizard-like to me...imagine Gandalf behaving like that...quite scary isn't it, changing hair colour and throwing hissy fits and all?

Secondly, the moving "castle" is not a castle; it is rather some machinery that looks quite revolting. The title gave me the feeling that it would be something like a castle on a cloud (think Les Miserables), but it turned out to be so depressing...

The appearance of the castle is not the only depressing thing (the whole show is quite dark and depressing). They were apparantly in some kind of war: there were the use of very repulsive looking battleships by the different countries and then there were wizards and witches. Then there was this very powerful sorceress Madam Sullivan (she met with Sophie and said that she was Howl's teacher, but I couldn't be sure because everything in the show twisted and turned until I dunno what is the story about and who's who already) who wanted to try to destroy Howl, or it so appears. But at the end, when Howl and Sophie ended up together, Sullivan said something like it was time to end the war, and she called the war idiotic, which baffles me because it seems like she agreed to going to war in the first place. What has Howl got to do with the war anyway? Didn't quite get it...

There were many other things that I did not comprehend, and I beseech those who have seen
and understood the movie to please comment and enlighten me!! I would be so grateful...I would have to watch it again sometime 3 months later.

The only thing that I like was that the ending was of a typical happy ending; everybody found what they were looking for and were contented. Hmm...guess that should be enough for anyone right?