Anime seems to be extremely mainstream now in the US, so why not talk about an anime film? Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio based in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. The studio has made many films that the public has since fallen in love with. In fact, I’ve seen many people describe Studio Ghibli as their childhood. They released “Howl’s Moving Castle” in 2004 during the Iraq war, an influence on Miyazaki’s direction. The film was based on Diana Wynne Jones’ book under the same name, but there are many noticeable differences between the book and film. One reason for this difference is most likely due to Miyazaki’s intention for the film: to show the unnecessariness and destructiveness of war, causing variations in plot and character development.
Warning: Many spoilers ahead
The beginning of the movie introduces the protagonist of the film, Sophie Hatter; ironically also working as a hatter. She is the oldest of 3 girls and daughter of Honey Hatter. Sophie is shown not to want to do anything other than work in the shop, which was founded by her unnamed father and managed by her mother. The secondary protagonist, wizard Howl, is also introduced as a sinister wizard who steals the hearts of beautiful young women.
In truth, when watching this part of the movie, my attention was stolen by the beautiful animation of the background and characters of the film. The setting of the film was based on Colmar and Riquewihr; two communes in Alsace, France, to which Miyazaki went to study.
Sophie unknowingly meets Howl one night on her way to meet her sister. Howl had rescued Sophie from two guards who were harassing her but was being followed himself. He alerts Sophie that his pursuers were the Witch of the Waste’s henchmen but that she shouldn’t mind them. To successfully escape, Howl floats up in the air with Sophie and takes her to her sister’s work.
This scene introduces us to the first signs of magic; mind the moving castle. Sophie is shown surprised at first but soon grows to enjoy it. I’m not kidding when I say I smiled at this scene. There’s something about it that just makes you happy.
When she’s told that the mysterious man she met was Howl, she mentions how she was always safe, for she was not pretty. This shows the viewers how she doesn’t have much confidence in herself. Later, in the hat shop, the Witch of the Waste puts a curse on Sophie which makes her rapidly reach an old age (in the novel she turns 90) and does not allow her to speak of what happened. The curse was placed on her because the Witch knew that Sophie had been with Howl,
who she wanted to get herself for many years... The Witch also gave Sophie a letter for Howl, knowing that they would meet again. The curse leads Sophie to leave her house and find Howl, without telling anyone that she was going.
This is how the first conflict is introduced. It does pave the way for the rest of the events of the film, but is it really the central conflict? As the movie passes, we see how having reached an old age has given Sophie freedom. She is now acting more on her own accords rather than how she used to live; it gave her confidence. In that manner, the curse can be seen as a gift.
Skipping forward, Sophie is now in Howl’s castle after receiving help from a scarecrow, Turnip-head, and random residents. Sophie meets Calcifer, a demon who is bound to Howl by a curse and also forced to run the castle. We also meet Markl, a young boy and Howl’s apprentice. In one scene, he answers the door three times. The door is magical and connected to 4 different areas; Markl had opened the door to answer three people. One was a customer; the other two were both calling Howl, under different names, to fight. The two soldiers came from different cities. The fight is a war between two kingdoms; it started because of a missing prince. preoccupied with it. But, this war is something that Howl can’t stand; so he fights it. We find out that Howl has been going in and out of the war through the
By: Juan Lopez