Howl’s moving castle Critique
Howl’s moving castle is Novel by Diana Wynne Jones adapted into a Japanese film, animated by Hayao
Miyazaki (a japanese animation director). The storyline of this movie is very wonderful and addictive. It
is very deep, highly emotional and meaningful. The animation is beautiful, the landscapes, the moving
airships and the melodious background music.
The more you watch it the better it gets. This is one of those movies that you just can’t stop rewatching.
This film is very imaginative, like the way they design the castle to be complicated in structure. All the
rooms in the castle are very detailed and delicate, especially in Howl’s bedroom. The castle has legs that
it uses to travel and walk around the hill (wasteland). It’s door has a mechanism that can switch color to
change the place where the door will lead to (the door opens to wherever it needs to open).
The story line started out with a girl named Sophie a hat maker and was cursed by the Witch of the
Waste (the antagonist) and turned her into an old woman, she did not know what to do and she decided
to wander at the wasteland where she hopes she could find a way to break her curse. As she left her
town and continue to wander, she came across a scarecrow who bounces around on his single wooden
leg and leads her to Howl’s castle.
Sophie went inside as she was tired and she waited while she rests, but Howl was currently out. She
then met a fire demon and made a deal with him, their deal states that if she helps both howl and him
break their contract, he would break the curse that he could sense that she was under.
That fire demon is named Calcifer, he is the powersource of the castle and without him the castle would
collapse. Sophie also asked if she could stay, in return she will be the castle’s housekeeper and maid of
all work.
As Sophie stayed she learns that Howl is just overdramatic and loves to court women until they fall for
him, at which point he loses interest( it’s where the rumors of him stealing every ladies heart and soul,
giving him the reputation: heart eater)
As the plot deepens. Howl is summoned to serve both of the warring Kingdoms, which presents him
with a problem. He was summoned by the king himself and a lady sorcerer (Madame Suliban) of the
opposing kingdom. They wanted to use his magic as a protection, in which Howl hated, however he
must report whenever summoned since he took an oathe as he was still a student. They say that Howl
only uses his magic for selfish reasons and he is dangerous for as someone who doesn’t have a heart (his
heart was stolen by a demon)
Another problem that he had is that The Witch of the waste has caught up to him ( he courted her a long
time ago and broken her heart). In a fit of fury and jealous rage, she had been hunting him down ever
since.
As time went by, Sophie discovers that Howl had a bargain and he would give his heart to Calcifer to
keep him alive, and in exchange, Calcifer would lend him his magical powers. She then understood why
she couldn’t speak a word of her curse as how did Calcifer couldn’t say a word about their deal.
Howl only then did realized that it was not a fair exchange (that it will kill Calcifer and will leave him
nearly destroyed)
As Sophie discovers and learns the truth, she turns young again without even noticing.
She then started and found a way on how to break Howl’s and Calcifer’s curse. As Sophie takes Howl’s
heart and placed it back to where it belonged, Howl then regains conciousness and says “ I feel a weigh
on my chest”, Sophie then replies “A heart’s a heavy burden”
The world of this movie is truly breath taking. My only criticism is that the ending of the movie felt
rushed, but overall the plot was lovely, like the little splashes of romance among the magic and action of
the rest of the film. And the most memorable line for me is Sophie’s line, “A heart’s a heavy burden,”
when she places Howl’s heart back in his chest. When Howl wakes up he says he feels terrible, like there
is a weight on his chest. Howl spends the majority of his life without his heart in his chest.
The story is about one’s adventure in life, having courage to leave so that you can see the place you
came from with new eyes and extra colors just like when sophie left her town, wanting to find a way to
break her curse and return. .
