The spell or curse is tied to Sophie’s lack of confidence and how she feels about herself (Odell & Le Blanc, 2009). Sophie is turned into an old woman after the Witch of the Waste curses her. Metamorphosis in the film is caused by magic. A main theme in Howl’s Moving Castle is change and metamorphosis (Odell & Le Blanc, 2009) “a regular feature of Miyazaki films”. In the 1990’s and 2000’s Miyazaki’s career is full of anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and metamorphosis, though his most recent films have a heavier emphasis on metamorphosis. As the film has darker moments and deals with love, it was not meant for children, but teens and young adults. And it is frightening to watch parts of that same city explode and go up in flames when the war reaches them. It is delightful to watch Sophie and Howl walk on air over the town as a parade takes place below. Odell and Le Blanc (2009) call Howl’s delightful and frightening. In this world magic is accepted as a part of life, and is feared and well as valued. Even with Miyazaki’s changes the film remains rooted in fantasy with a wizard, a witch and curse that changes Sophie’s appearance.

In the novel there is no war, Sophie has magic, Sophie’s sisters have a larger role, and Howl has a love interest other than Sophie. In a 2005 Newsweek interview Miyazaki said that the film was “profoundly affected by the war in Iraq”. According to Odell and Le Blanc (2009) real world events diverted the film from the novel original form. The master of the castle is Howl, a wizard, who according to rumors is loved and feared. A mesh of machinery and many parts of homes the moving castle is a large wandering mess held together by magic. It is said that the idea of adapting the novel into a film appealed to Miyazaki because of the castle the castle as Odell and Le Blanc (2009) put it “is clearly a designers dream” (p. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) is an adaptation from the book, by Diana Wynne Jones (Odell & Le Blanc, 2009).

Howls moving castle gifs