Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie Review

Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle arrives on a Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack courtesy of Shout! Factory. Nearly all of the bonus materials from the prior Buena Vista US BD are ported over. Shout! also licensed an interview and a couple of featurettes from the Studio Canal overseas.

This release comes with a slipcover and an Elite case for the discs. Cover art on the slip and keep case covers is the same (see #s 1 and 10). For thoughts on the movie and a review of a/v specs, you can see my colleague Kenneth Brown's review of Disney's 2013 BD/DVD twin pack here.

Front cover of slip and back cover of BD case.

Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Howl's Moving Castle is presented in its originally projected ratio of 1.85:1 on a BD-50. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded transfer carries an average video bitrate of 27999 kbps for the feature presentation while the full disc sports a total bitrate of 39.27 Mbps. Capture #s 5-9 are struck from Shout!'s transfer.

The main feature has been given twenty-four chapter stops.

Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Soundtrack options for Howl's Moving Castle comprise the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix (4392 kbps, 24-bit), the original Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (4165 kbps, 24-bit), and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track (448 kbps) dubbed in French.

There are three subtitling options: English SDH for the English sound track, English subtitles for the original language version, and French subtitles.

Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout! loses the interview with voice actor Pete Docter on the US but adds two featurettes, an interview, and a slim booklet. Extras come with English subtitles where needed.

• Feature-Length Storyboards as a Multi-Angle Presentation (2:16:38, 1080p)

• Behind the Microphone (9:00, upconverted to 1080p)

• "Hello, Mr. Lasseter!" Hayao Miyazaki Visits Pixar (16:25, upconverted to 1080p)

• NEW The Birth Story of the Film Soundtrack (27:47, upconverted to 1080p)

• NEW Interview with Diana Wynne Jones (7:34, upconverted to 1080p)

• NEW Explanation of CG: How to Move Howl's Castle (19:37, upconverted to 1080p)

• Original Theatrical Trailers (8:14, 1080p)

• TV Spots (8:24, upconverted to 1080p)

• NEW 8-page Booklet with Producer's Statement and more

Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 2013 American BD/DVD pack of Howl's Moving Castle is out-of-print so this reissue by Shout! Factory is a welcome release. MOST DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED to anime fans everywhere.