
She subsequently meets Howl's young apprentice Markl and a fire demon named Calcifer, the source of the castle's magic and movement.

He leads her to Howl's moving castle where she enters without invitation. She meets a living scarecrow, whom she calls "Turnip Head".

Seeking to break the curse, Sophie leaves home and sets off through the countryside. Upon returning home, she meets the Witch of the Waste, who transforms her into a 90-year-old woman. Sophie, a young milliner and eldest of three sisters, encounters a wizard named Howl on her way to visit her sister Lettie. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards, but lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in 2006, and won several other awards, including four Tokyo Anime Awards and a Nebula Award for Best Script. The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise toward its visuals and Miyazaki's presentation of the themes. It went on to gross $190 million in Japan and $236 million worldwide, making it one of the most commercially successful Japanese films in history. Howl's Moving Castle premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2004, and was theatrically released in Japan on 20 November 2004. In 2013, Miyazaki said Howl's Moving Castle was his favorite creation, explaining, "I wanted to convey the message that life is worth living, and I don't think that's changed." The film is significantly thematically different from the novel while the novel focuses on challenging class and gender norms, the film focuses on love, personal loyalty and the destructive effects of war. The film contains feminist elements as well, and carries messages about the value of compassion. It also explores the theme of old age, depicting age positively as something which grants the protagonist freedom. Miyazaki stated that he "had a great deal of rage" about the Iraq war, which led him to make a film which he felt would be poorly received in the United States. Influenced by Miyazaki's opposition to the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003, the film contains strong anti-war themes. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king. It tells the story of Sophie, a young milliner who is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. The film is set in a fictional kingdom where both magic and early twentieth-century technology are prevalent, against the backdrop of a war with another kingdom. The Japanese voice cast featured Chieko Baisho and Takuya Kimura, while the English dub version starred Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Lauren Bacall, Christian Bale, Josh Hutcherson and Billy Crystal. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. It is loosely based on the 1986 novel of the same name by British author Diana Wynne Jones. The settings elevate the simplest of pleasures to opulence, reminding viewers to pause and appreciate the beauty around them in their day-to-day lives. Whichever Ghibli film fans choose to watch, they can expect to be treated to dazzling views and to leave with new appreciation of the everyday.Howl's Moving Castle ( Japanese: ハウルの動く城, Hepburn: Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

Studio Ghibli films are a masterclass in the notion of a picture being worth a thousand words. Howl's maturation and growing relationship with Sophie are charted through the castle's changing appearance. Originally avant-garde and filled to the brim with mess and bauble, the castle comes to embody the warmth of a loving home once Howl and Sophie's curses are dissolved.
Anime landscape ghibli movie#
In a movie where wizards and magic play a key role, the extraordinary is to be expected - especially when it's coming from Studio Ghibli. Howl's castle is far from a traditional brick-and-mortar fortress with turrets, in both the film and the book it is adapted from. The castle's wondrous interior and chaotic clutter is eye-catching, but it also visually represents who Howl is.
