First things first, for the Hayao Miyazaki fans out there: The anime master’s latest film, Howl’s Moving Castle, is not Spirited Away good. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Howl’s Moving Castle is Castle in the Sky good. And for Miyazaki fans, that’s pretty much all you need to know.

For everyone else, however, Howl’s Moving Castle deserves a bit more elaboration. Based on the 1986 young adult fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, the film takes broad liberties with the source material, coming up with a storyline that is more realistically described as a hybrid of Jones’ and Miyazaki’s influences. While hardcore Jones fans anticipating a Lord of the Rings-style adaptation are likely to be sorely disappointed, most everyone else will find the synthesis delightful.

The movie opens with the eponymous castle of the title parting the mists of the Waste in a simple, yet breathtaking introduction. The castle doesn’t do anything in this opening sequence but move, but boy, how it moves! A complex conglomerate of disparate parts working together in a frenzy of kinetic energy, the castle is almost Rube Goldbergian in its complexity, setting the stage nicely for the rich tale of magic to come.

The castle belongs to the kind-hearted but self-absorbed wizard Howl, who wanders the Waste in his castle in the vain hope of avoiding involvement in his country’s long-running war with a neighboring state. During one of his brief forays into a city, Howl pauses momentarily to rescue a young woman named Sophie from the unwanted attentions of a pair of amorous soldiers. This, unfortunately, brings Sophie to the attention of the vindictive Witch of the Waste, who transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman out of spite for Howl. Desperate to break the curse, Sophie hobbles into the Waste hoping to find a wizard or witch willing to restore her to her former age. She finds herself hired on as housekeeper for Howl and his pig-sty of a castle and then, as they say, the fun really begins.

Miyazaki infuses the movie with two main themes common to his other films: condemnation of the futility of war, and faith in the transformative power of love. The ongoing war — though ill-defined in the narrative — continues to grow and gradually draws even Howl into the fray , despite his best efforts. Fleets of winged airships battle high over the land, and their bombing runs on the cities are so stark and graphic they bring to mind scenes from Miyazaki collaborator Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies. Shapeshifting wizards that began fighting earlier on in the conflict have lost all traces of their humanity, becoming gruesome, flying toad-like beings, and Howl himself is in danger of losing himself to a frightening bird-of-prey form. It is Sophie who intervenes, saving Howl from his desperate course of self-destruction, and their feelings for each other grow despite the apparent difference in age. It’s a scenario that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Miyazaki’s previous efforts, but even so the director manages to pull it off for the most part.

There’s a whole lot that works in this movie. The world Howl inhabits could easily be an early 20th century analog of Austria or any number of imperial European countries, lush with pomp and circumstance. The steampunk confection of technology and magic is a giddy mix, and the balance struck feels solid and proper.

As usual, the characters stand out as quirky and distinct. The ensorcelled scarecrow, Turnip Head, steals practically every scene he’s in despite a complete lack of dialogue. Sophie, voiced by Emily Mortimer when younger and Jean Simmons when elder, is delightfully sassy and direct, striking an impressively pragmatic tone throughout. Christian Bale’s Howl is alternately self-involved and stern, and while his voicework doesn’t exhibit the range of some of the other actors, he conveys power effectively. Lauren Bacall does an excellent job with the Witch of the Waste, adapting easily to the character’s radical personality shifts, and Blythe Danner radiates cool power as the powerful Madam Suliman.

Perhaps the most striking performance is that of Billy Crystal, who is remarkably restrained as Calcifer, the put-upon fire demon that runs the moving castle. It would’ve been easy for Crystal to mug his way through this role — and indeed, I went in expecting an over-the-top performance akin to his Mike from Monsters Inc. or Miracle Max from The Princess Bride, but instead Crystal worked hard to bring out Calcifer’s fear and vulnerability.

As moving as the film is, however, it is not without some significant flaws. Most frustrating is the fact that while every magical being Sophie meets recognizes that she’s under a spell, none of them make any effort to help free her. And despite this lack of help, as the movie wears on the curse seems to lose its power over Sophie at random intervals, a development that goes unnoticed by the characters and unexplained by the film.

The war, being undefined, lacks the substance that made the conflicts in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky or Princess Mononoke so effective. There’s a lot of flash and bang, yes, but no real meaning behind the carnage. When Madam Suliman acknowledges the pointlessness of the conflict and brings her vast powers into play to try and bring it to an end, she suddenly becomes the biggest villain of the piece — in retrospect — for perpetuating the war for so long.

The Witch of the Waste is just a tad too evocative of Yubaba from Spirited Away for comfort, and Turnip Head’s ultimate fate is more than just a tad contrived. In fact, the entire finale comes out in a rush, tying up all the loose ends far too neatly without bothering to answer half the questions that arose during the preceding two hours. Fortunately, the sheer narrative inertia carries the audience past these rough spots . . . more or less.

The style and craftsmanship that make Miyazaki’s films such a delight is obvious from the first frames of Howl’s Moving Castle and the animation is wondrous to behold. It doesn’t take long before the viewer begins to think Disney may have been a bit premature in shuttering its traditional cell animation studios in favor of digital workstations. Entertaining, challenging and thought-provoking, Howl’s Moving Castle may not be the best film ever released by Studio Ghibli, but it’s easily one of the best of the year.