Don't get me wrong, "Howl's Moving Castle" is my #2 favorite Ghibli film that I watched multiple times. It has so many deep meanings and awesome characters. It has so many deep meanings and awesome characters.
However, there's one single thing in this movie that I dislike: Ghibli tries to preach “always be nice to people even at the expense of yourself”, which I find extremely unrealistic, naive and self-damaging.
For instance: When the Witch of the Waste caught fire because she grabbed Calcifer, Sophie poured water on her to save her. Calcifer had explicitly told her multiple times that his life and Howl’s life were connected in a way that if one of them died, the other would die, too. Are you telling me you're sacrificing both Howl's and Calcifer's lives to save hers??! It's not like dumping water on her is the only way; you could hit her hands with a stick and she'd drop Calcifer. She's a 120-year-old woman at this point, are you saying you can't overpower her?! ALSO, when the Witch grabbed Calcifer, her hands weren't getting burned at all (Sophie got burned when she touched the fire, but the Witch didn't)... After all, Howl and Calcifer were so kind to Sophie. On the other hand, the Witch had never done a single nice thing for them; instead, she repeatedly sabotaged them despite their kindness to her.
Sure, Ghibli preaches "forgiveness". But I think they went overboard with it here, because they inadvertently send a message that no matter what horrible things you (the Witch) did, there's no consequence or repercussion and you even get your previous victims taking care of you in your old age.
Second, Sophie took the Witch into Howl's house and cares for her. The Witch at this point is too old to eat a meal by herself. Are you telling me that you'd take in some random elderly woman and spoonfeed her every meal, bathe her and change her diapers??! I'm sorry, this is too farfetched to me and it makes Sophie's character unreal.
I also got an impression that the Witch is taking advantage of Sophie's kindness, eg, the Witch is able to smoke a cigarette by herself and grab Calcifer by herself but she isn't willing to eat a meal by herself. It's as if she's waiting for Sophie to "serve" her.
Yes, I understand how movies always try to preach “always be nice to people no matter what”; however, "always helping others at great costs to yourself" is not a motto I would advocate.
Remember when Sophie refused to help the Witch walk up the stairs? She was nice, but NOT the kind of “angelic niceness” that helps everyone at the expense of herself. She's a human, not an angel. Thus, she feels ‘real’ in this scene. As the movie goes, she feels less real because her niceness has progressed to a kind of self-destruction that negatively impacted innocent people.
"Helping others within your means" would be a better message for kids and adults.
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