Movies - Howl's Moving Castle

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	Movies - Howl's Moving Castle

is a Japanese anime film based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel of the same name and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. Mamoru Hosoda, director of two seasons and one movie 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. Diana Wynne Jones did meet with representatives from Studio Ghibli but did not have any input or involvement in the production of the film. She's quoted as saying, "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." Miyazaki travelled to England in summer 2004 to give Jones a private viewing of the finished movie.

The animated film was released to cinemas in Japan on November 20, 2004. The film has also been dubbed into English by Pixar's Peter Docter and is being distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. The film began showing in select cinemas around the United States and Canada on June 10, 2005. It was released nationwide in Australia on September 22 and in the UK on September 23.

Differences in the Story

As Jones noted, the film is significantly different from her original novel in many ways. Roughly the first third of the plot is similar, after which the movie branches off into original territory, flavored with many of Miyazaki's familiar themes: airships, redemption, 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 the Spanish-American War and located in a fantastical nation somewhat reminiscent of pre-World War I Germany. 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. The movie also delves into spectacular scenes of radically alternate realities co-existing within the normal reality of the main story, and sequences of intensely hallucinogenic visuals and concepts are prominently featured throughout the second half of the film.

Many of the book's characters appear in the film as modified forms of the book characters. The character of Howl's apprentice, Michael Fisher, is a teenager 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 terrorizing the characters as a frightening villain, she is treated as a "grandmother" character, and 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 at one point he blazes up into a wicked-looking blue flame strongly reminiscent of his appearance in the book. Various other characters in the film are composites of the book's characters, with different motivations and personalities. Sophie and Howl themselves strongly resemble Jones' characters (though Howl has a completely different background), but with gentler personas and less selfish motivations; that is, typical Jones character traits are softened into typical Miyazaki character traits.

The film was released on DVD and VHS March 7, 2006 in North America along with Whisper of the Heart
and the long-awaited My Neighbor Totoro
; and March 13, 2006 in the UK.

Staff credits

Producer: Toshio Suzuki
Directed, written by: Hayao Miyazaki
Based on the novel by: Diana Wynne Jones
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Theme Song: "Sekai no Yakusoku" ("The Promise of the World")
*Music: Youmi Kimura
*Lyrics: Shuntaro Tanigawa
*Arrangement: Joe Hisaishi
*Performance: Chieko Baisho
Editor: Takeshi Seyama
Supervising Animators: Akihiro Yamashita, Takeshi Inamura, Kitaro Kosaka
Art Directors: Yozi Takeshige, Noboru Yoshida
Digital Animation Director: Mitsunori Kataama
Color Designer: Michiyo Yasuda
Camera (color): Atsushi Okui
Audio Director: Kazuhiro Hayashi
Sound: Shuji Inoue
Sound Effects: Toru Noguchi
Released by: Toho

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Movies - Howl's Moving Castle

Differences in the Story

Staff credits

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