First things first. Howl - voiced by Christian Bale - is a handsome, shape-shifting white wizard facing the loss of his powers.

Secondly, he's got a castle. That moves. It's a magnificent, tangled clutter of rusty cannons, Tudor alms houses, spindly legs and fortress gates powered by a Fire Demon.

Striding across the countryside, it's the sort of thing Terry Gilliam might have dreamed up at the height of his powers as a animator with Monty Python.

Into Howl's world comes Sophie, a teenage milliner whose been cursed into the form of an old woman by the evil Witch of the Waste - a sort of obese Cruella De Vil.

Cast out from the city, she happens upon Howl's Castle and is welcomed into its baroque belly and employed as a cleaning lady. Yes, it's weird - but stick with it.

At the same time the country, which looks a lot like Germany, is gearing up for the war to end all wars with an equally bellicose neighbour.

Summoning all his remaining powers, Howl enters the fray...but black forces are determined to dash his hopes of achieving peace.

The plays like the Brothers Grimm on acid - malevolent oil slicks topped with straw boaters seep through doors, Howl morphs into a vast raven and the door out of his castle opens into something from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

However, children old enough not to be freaked by the surrealism of it all - sometimes quite scary - will love it.

If you liked Spirited Away this will, erm, spirit you away.

Tim Evans