‘HOWL’S Moving Castle” is another stunningly beautiful and beguiling work of animation from Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki, whose “Spirited Away” proved him one of the few filmmakers today who can be called a genius.

“Howl,” which can be described as an antiwar allegory, a magic realism fable and a deconstruction of “The Wizard of Oz,” is something of a departure for him in that it’s set not in Japan or a fantasy world but a place that mostly resembles Victorian England.

But the director uses a children’s book by Diane Wynne to unleash his own boundless imagination and keep the tradition of hand-drawn animation alive.

The main characters are Howl (voiced by Batman-to-be Christian Bale in the English-language version), a young blond wizard who refuses to be drafted into a war, and Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), a timid 18-year-old hat seller who gets in the middle of a romantic feud between Howl and the mountainously large Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall).

Turned into a feisty 90-year-old crone (now voiced by Jean Simmons) by the witch, Sophie heads for Howl’s anthropomorphic, Monty Python-esque castle, which has birdlike feet and is powered by a cursed, wisecracking flame named Calcifer (Billy Crystal).

Howl will help her, but first Sophie has to pose as his mother – and try to beg off from war duty in a meeting with the king’s witch, Madame Suliman (Blythe Danner).

This doesn’t quite work out – Howl turns into a birdlike creature, and the Witch of the Waste is transformed into an old crone cared for by Sophie.

The story, which also involves an asthmatic dog and a scarecrow, is more accessible than “Spirited Away” but less transporting than that Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Even so, it provides opportunity for a large number of eye-popping sequences – like the ones seen through the castle’s magic door, which opens on a variety of settings, including a field filled with impressionistic flowers.

This review of “Howl’s Moving Castle” is based on a viewing of an English-dubbed version supervised by Pixar and Disney filmmakers. Disney didn’t screen the subtitled Japanese-language edition, which will alternate at the Lincoln Square with the dubbed one.

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HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE [***] (Three stars)

Delightful. Shown in separate English- dubbed and English-subtitled Japanese versions. Running time: 119 minutes. Rated PG (frightening images and brief mild language). At the Lincoln Square, Broadway and 68th Street.