Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro?, lit. Howl's Moving Castle) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel of the same name. Mamoru Hosoda, director of one season and two movies from the Digimon series, was originally selected to direct but abruptly left the project, leaving the then retired Miyazaki to take up the director's role.
The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2004 and was released in Japanese theaters on November 20, 2004. It went on to gross $231,710,455 worldwide,[1] making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history. The film was subsequently dubbed into English by Pixar's Peter Docter and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. It received a limited release in the United States and Canada beginning June 10, 2005 and was released nationwide in Australia on September 22 and in the UK the following September.
Plot
Eighteen-year-old Sophie, who runs her late father's hat shop, encounters the mysterious wizard Howl by chance. He takes a liking to her. This attracts the attention of the Witch of the Waste, who has been seeking Howl's heart for herself. She curses Sophie, turning her into an old woman. Unable to tell anyone about the curse, Sophie decides to run away. Along the way, she befriends an animated scarecrow she names Turnip Head and they come across Howl's castle. Once inside, Sophie meets the fire demon Calcifer who powers the castle and recognizes that Sophie has been cursed. Calcifer offers to break the curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the pact between him and Howl. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that she is the castle's new cleaning lady. As she adjusts to life in the castle, she discovers that the front door is a magic portal leading to several places. She also learns that Howl is vain and immature, and that the Witch of the Waste's vengeance is due to Howl's past behavior towards her.
Howl receives summons from the King, who orders his various assumed identities to fight in the war started by the disappearance of Crown Prince Justin. Howl refuses to fight and suspects that it is also a trap set by his mentor, the King's Head Sorceress, Madame Suliman. Howl sends Sophie as his mother to decline. At the palace, Sophie runs into the Witch of the Waste and tells Sophie that she can only cast spells and not reverse them. As Madame Suliman is against the forming of pacts between sorcerers/sorceresses and demons, she punishes the Witch by draining all of the latter's power. Losing her (more) youthful facade, the Witch returns to her true age, and becomes a seemingly senile old woman. Suliman tells Sophie that Howl will meet the same fate if he does not contribute to the war. As she is telling Madame Suliman that Howl is not really cowardly, but rather honest and kind, Sophie briefly reverts to her youthful self. She turns back into an old woman when Madame Suliman responds. Howl then arrives to rescue Sophie, with the Witch and Suliman's asthmatic lapdog Heen tagging along. He gives Sophie a magical ring that would guide her to Calcifer. Suliman, knowing Sophie's true identity, begins tracking her to get to Howl.
Sophie learns through Calcifer and dreams that Howl transforms into a bird- or demon-like creature to escape pursuers and interfere in the war, but each transformation leaves it more difficult for him to return to human form. Sophie's love and care for Howl and the others at the castle have gradually pushed her closer to her true age, and she now looks younger and is no longer hunched. Howl shows his appreciation for her by transforming the castle so that it becomes neater, more pleasant, and can lead to Sophie's old room.
Sophie's still young and beautiful mother, Honey, visits one day, feigning affection and cheer. She is actually under Suliman's threats, and the former Witch of the Waste discovers the spying "bug" Honey leaves behind. Before the bug is destroyed, it alerts Suliman to their location, and she sends troops to capture Howl. Howl transforms and draws the guards away, while Sophie and Calcifer bring the castle to the Wastes though Calcifer's power is rapidly fading due to ingesting the spying "bug". The Witch of the Waste sees Howl's heart in Calcifer's diminishing flames, and grabs it. To save her from burning, Sophie douses her with water. Calcifer is reduced to a small, blue flame, and is no longer able to properly control the castle. The castle breaks apart, and Sophie and Heen are thrown over a cliff.
Sophie recovers in tears, believing that she has killed both Calcifer and Howl, as their lives are interconnected. As she is sobbing, Howl's ring points to the remains of Howl's castle door; she walks through it. She finds herself in Howl's favorite childhood spot, and soon discovers that she is in Howl's past. She sees Calcifer being caught by Howl as a falling star. To save Calcifer's life, Howl gives his heart to him and thus loses the ability to love. Before being returned to the present, Sophie shouts for attention, and asks him to look for her in the future.
Back in the present, Sophie finds Howl and realizes that he has been waiting for her all along. He carries her to the others and then collapses. She takes Howl's heart from the Witch and puts it back in his chest, breaking the bond between Howl and Calcifer. Calcifer returns to his original form and flies away. The remains of the castle, no longer powered, slide down the cliffs. Turnip Head stops the fall and saves everyone, but is damaged. Sophie gives him a kiss, and he transforms (back) into the missing Prince Justin. The Prince thanks Sophie for breaking the curse as his true love, but Sophie then kisses Howl, her true love. By now, she has all but transformed back to her youthful self but in hair color, which is left gray. Prince Justin leaves to put an end to the war. Madame Suliman, who has been watching through Heen's eyes, orders her subjects to cease fire. Later, Howl, Sophie, and the others are seen aboard a new flying castle powered by Calcifer of his free will. Howl and Sophie embrace and kiss.
Cast
The movie stars the following actors:
Differences between film and novel
Diana Wynne Jones did meet with representatives from Studio Ghibli but did not have any input or involvement in the production of the film. Miyazaki traveled to England in the summer of 2004 to give Jones a private viewing of the finished movie. She has been quoted as saying:
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- "It's fantastic. No, I have no input—I write books, not films. Yes it will be different from the book—in fact it's likely to be very different, but that's as it should be. It will still be a fantastic film."[2]
As Jones noted, the film is significantly different from her original novel. Much of the plot is similar, but it is flavored with many of Miyazaki's familiar themes: airships, redemption, solving one's own problems, beautiful natural landscapes, Victorian to World War II period European or Japanese societies (roughly 1860–1945), and cute non-human sidekicks. The focus is still on Sophie and her adventure while being cursed with old age, but the main action of the film's story takes place during a war, reminiscent of World War II, with bombing-attacks on civilian cities similar to the Blitzkrieg, and monstrously-large Dreadnought style battleships. The film is located in a fantastical nation somewhat reminiscent of pre-World War I Alsace. Indeed, many buildings in the town are identical to actual buildings in the Alsatian town of Colmar, which Miyazaki acknowledged as the inspiration for its setting.[citation needed]
Whereas the novel is concerned with Howl's womanizing and his attempts to weasel out of locating a lost wizard and a prince, the film has Howl avoiding helping in a national war for pacifist reasons, and deals with the consequences of this decision. This aspect of the film's plot is actually rooted in Miyazaki's political views as a pacifist — in an interview with Newsweek magazine, Miyazaki told the interviewer that the movie had started production "just as your country [the USA] had started the war against Iraq", and the subsequent rage he felt about the Iraq war "profoundly impacted" the film.[3]
The book has the protagonists detour for one chapter into the 20th century world, where Howl is known as Howell Jenkins. This element is not used in the film, although one of Howl's aliases is "The Great Wizard Jenkins."
Many of the book's characters are modified for the film. The character of Howl's apprentice, Michael Fisher, is a teenager (15) in the book but a young boy, "Markl", in the film. Sophie has only one sister in the movie compared to two in the book (although the other sister is alluded to as an aside near the film's opening). The Witch of the Waste, instead of looking young and beautiful, is a huge heavyset woman that later becomes an old crone; as opposed to the frightening villain terrorizing the characters in the book, the film's latter half transforms her into a "grandmother" character and is even taken into Howl's home. Calcifer, who is a scary looking fire demon in the book, is portrayed as an adorable little flame in the film, although twice he blazes up into a wicked-looking blue flame strongly reminiscent of his appearance in the book. Finally, while in the book the 'Wizard Suliman' is an ally, in the film this is changed to 'Madame Suliman', a villain who is similar in appearance to the book's Mrs. Penstemmon. Various other characters in the film are composites of the book's characters, with different motivations and personalities.
Reception
USA Today critic Claudia Puig praised it for its ability to blend "a childlike sense of wonder with sophisticated emotions and motives" while Richard Roeper called it an "insanely creative work". Other critics described it as "a visual wonder", "A gorgeous life-affirming piece", and "an animated tour de force." A dissenting view came from Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times who felt that it was one of Miyazaki's "weakest" films.[4] The film was also listed by Sight & Sound, the official magazine of the British Film Institute, as one of the best films of 2005. It was the only animated film to be included on the list.
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2005.[5]
Awards
Notes
External links
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