Love, Magic, and Self-Discovery: Howl's Moving Castle A Video Essay

Discover the magical world of 'Howl's Moving Castle' in this in-depth exploration of both the book and the movie. Join me as I delve into the enchanting story of Sophie Hatter, a young girl who is transformed into an old woman by a wicked witch's curse. Her adventures lead her to the mysterious Howl, a wizard who lives in a moving castle that roams the countryside.

We'll take a look at the differences between the book and the movie, exploring how the two versions tell the same story in different ways. We'll also explore the complex characters of Sophie and Howl, as well as the supporting cast of witches, wizards, and magical creatures that populate the story.

Through interviews with fans of both the book and the movie, we'll explore what makes 'Howl's Moving Castle' such a beloved classic of modern fantasy literature and cinema. We'll also discuss the themes of love, identity, and self-discovery that run through both versions of the story.

So join me in a deep dive on the magic of Howl's Moving Castle. In this retrospective we will take a look at all of the secrets and hidden meanings in the film, and explore how they change the way we see our favorite characters Howl, Sophie, Calcifer and even Turnip Head. Let's delve into the source material for this beloved film the novel Howl's Moving Castle by author Diana Wynne Jones and the differences between the film and the book. Then understanding the profound impact war has had in the life of director Hayao Miyazaki and how that impacts his writing and film making and why he chose to adapt the source material in the way he did. Examine theories and some of my own thoughts on the meanings and symbolism in the film as well.

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ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ CHAPTERS ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ
00:00 Introduction
00:26 History
02:54 Book vs Movie (Minor Differences)
07:01 Major Differences
09:37 Howl is from WHERE?
10:19 War and Pacifism Miyazaki’s Past
13:37 He said WHAT to WHO?
14:36 Sophie is a witch
19:17 Howl knows it’s Sophie from the beginning
21:04 The power of love
23:34 Conclusion

(ᵔᴥᵔ) Music (ᵔᴥᵔ)
Merry Go Round of Life - Howl's Moving Castle (acoustic guitar)-Alva Sunde

Happy Farmer by 부구미 BuGuMi

Merry Go Round of Life - Howl's Moving Castle Kalimba cover by April Yang

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Short video clips used for commentary fair use purposes only and rights belong to Studio Ghibli or respective owners of source material.

[missladyhaha]

Not just her love for Howl…but the love she has for herself. Having Howl’s love didn’t just break the curse, but the true love she has for herself was the moment her curse broke.

[NextLevelCode]

I always thought that Sofies age was a reflection of how she was feeling about herself her self image. But these explanations are cool too!

[tatanooki]

when i hear you said miyazaki "intentionally alienate american audiences and purposely made the story hard to follow and different from hollywood storytelling", i can tell you all, he sure succeed in alienating american audiences. i've seen so many internet people and popular cmmentary youtubers say they dislike HMC's story because they dont get it. They dont understand how Sophie's curse works, even tho its obvious how it works, even my 13 year old sister immediately understands her curse lol. its a self love thing not a """tRuE LOVe""" thing. but howl's love for her definitely helped her in achieving self love!

[rory]

She also speaks to the flying machine after the crash, telling it to "work, damn you" and it sparks to life and flies out of the wall

[katiemari]

I think Sophie's "speaking things into existence magic" is really fascinating, and it made me think about the power of self talk and manifesting feelings/perceived realities in our own lives. If we all just recognized our own magic like Sophie, maybe we would be kinder to ourselves and express more love! ♡

But I really loved this video! It made me want to properly dive back into the books to find all of the little similarities between them and the movie. The Wales thing always gets me though, LOL~ Learning that fact never ceases to amaze and amuse me ^o^

[ilovesunny]

Big W of miyazaki for protesting against the Iraq war. Millions of people have died and the US still doesn’t take resposibilities, even worse, 2024 nearly all middle eastern countries have been bombed by the US

[irmar]

You can love someone who doesn't have a heart. Unfortunately, you can. Not recommended, though.

[RoseAriane]

watching this after watching the movie again...
It surprises me with new messages every time i watch it.
I remember the first time i watched it i was sobbing and crying the whole time, this movie comforted me greatly.
This time after watching it, I resonated with Sofie's character more than ever. The amount of care and love she gives for others is so greatttt from her step mom, step sister, markl, tunip, calcifer, and howl... she has all that loveeee for everyone but she had so little for her self...

There's so many interpretations as to why why sofie's curse goes on and off, but for me it's not just her love for Howl, or for herself, but her level of maturity, where in the beginning she was matured, poised, headstrong, courageous, yet she sees herself as below standard in terms of looks. Hence the appearance of an old wrinkly lady. Remember in the beginning of the film where Lettie entices Sofie to go out and explore... but she was dead set on running the hat shop... all that duty related maturity was mirrored in physical form. That's why when she finally begins to go on an adventure, act and feel her age, her youthful self appears briefly. All the decisions she did towards the end wouldn't be the "right mature" decision I would make.

OR beside maturity, maybe when Sofie gets so passionate she turns back to her young form. Like after she cleaned up when she slept she was normal, when she was passionately protecting Howl every single time, she would be in younger form.

Thats just me. But what bothers me now is why her hair didn't change back to the black color... hmmmm, is it because she gave her hair to calcifer?
or because the symbolism of the hair in this movie is far more complex like for example, what does the color grey mean?
I searched google and one interesting definition can best fit Sofie's character in the film
"gray is the color of intellect, knowledge, and wisdom. It is perceived as classic, refined, dignified, and conservative. Gray is perfect neutral that lives between the extremes of black and white."

In any case before I bore you with my own essay here hahaha

I love this film so much and even with all the research you did and all the information I now know of, the whole film still intrigues me no matter how many times I watch it.

It is definitely a masterpiece ahead of its time.

Thank you for this video essay!
Keep it up!!!

[OkamiHowls]

Howl's Moving Castle is a very interesting and beautiful movie to me. It is the first Studio Ghibli movie that I have seen. I originally watched this movie after unexpectedly spending a girls night in an old friend's dorm room. Watching it the first time, the movie was very pretty and funny to me but didn't leave a lasting impact. The parts I remembered were primarily Sophie and Calciifer interacting and her crying in the rain with Turnip Head. The romance itself between her and Howl didn't stick and when discussing the movie with anyone I always found myself relating back to Sophie's journey specifically and her finding a home.

To watch this review, I sat down and watched the movie again alone. I tried to really focus on all the characters and the dynamics. Yet, I found myself focusing on the same aspect, Sophie's transformation and interaction with characters. I agree heavily with your review that love and vanity play as the central part to the movie. However, rather than romantic love I think many of the curses shown are based on self love. After my rewatch, I noticed that Sophie gets younger majority of the time when she finds beauty in the environment, feels appreciated, or finds a sense of self-worth in what she is achieving. Even in moments where she keeps her old voice but has a young appearance, I noticed that her words relent to the beauty of being old and being able to see the world in a different perspective. Her words and her thoughts are what change her curse and are her magic, as you said. And I honestly love that detail and realize why I always remembered only Sophie and her banter scenes rather than the growing romantic plot of her and Howl.

Her romance with Howl I believe is only another stem of the blooming flower for her self love. My favorite anime quote has always been "Sometimes, we need someone to accept and love us first. Then, we would learn to see ourselves through that person's eyes and learn to love ourselves." This quote is from Yuki Sohma in Fruits Basket. His entire story surrounds the same views of vanity, self worth and love. Rather than following the perception of beauty by others Sophie and Yuki find themselves being appreciated, called beautiful/pretty by people they care about and through that discover that they are worthy enough to be loved and are beautiful. Through Howl, Markl and Calcifer's love for Sophie, she finds a worth and love for herself and that helps her realize that Howl has to find that love too. He is unable to feel the love of other's, love her, or himself without the entirety of his heart. He's fallen so far into being a crow, admiring the shiny, pretty things that he's lost sight of the people who find the beauty in his magic, in him and who love him beyond his own demons.

This analysis is all the thoughts I had stemming after my rewatch and watch of this video. Perhaps it is a bit jumbled but there's also beauty in the honest thoughts and words that come from ourselves, which Howl's Moving Castle teaches us.

[richardwilliams]

Just came in from my local AMC after watching this movie as part of the studio Ghibli fest, and I have to say your explanations and insight about the film really cleared some confusing issues I had. I originally saw the movie as some sort of time loop, as Sophie saw and communicated with a young Howl swallowing the shooting star (was that Calcifer?) and in turn the older Howl knowing about Sophie since the beginning of the movie and also being privy to the fact that she was the key to breaking his curse. But the other themes about love, Miyazki's purposeful obfuscation storytelling, and connections to an original book were all surprises to me. I plan on adding this film to my collection, thank you for the edification!

[emilyekeylime]

I loved this video! You did such a good job on this deep dive. I love how you brought up information from the book and didn’t just focus on the movie.

[The_anomaly_eater]

wOa
This is amazing. I don't think I could ever do so much work researching a single piece of media like you did. That's amazing! This video explains q lot about the movie that I didn't understand the first few times I watched. Thanks for making this!

[jezpin]

I have always seen her getting younger (in the movies) as the passion she is showing at that time overpowering the spell. When I real the book, i doubled down on that head-cannon

[JosephJin]

This essay is packed with rare background info and creative takes. If only the thumbnail and title of the video precisely reflected that, so that more people would click on it.

[yosinevarez]

This was the deep dive I didn’t know I needed ❤

[alexmaga]

I just finished seeing howls moving castle just to see this video, amazing movie and amazing video

[prncess]

Wonderful video, I love Howl’s Moving Castle! It’s such a beautiful movie.

[TrevorHarden]

This was so excellent. Thank you for putting this together.

[davidmurfin]

Great job. The best difference between the book and movie though was the movie's score. Such a master work.

[molly-zxcr]

One of my favorite books of all time. Brought my copy to college and beyond. There’s also two sequels! “Castle in the Air” and “House of Many Ways”