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This site is a tribute to the various creative iterations of the adventures of Sophie and the Wizard Howl: Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and Hauru no Ugoku Shiro.
Howl's Moving Castle is a fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, published in 1986. It's a sarcastic take on western folklore, told in a humorous, witty style. The story is told from the perspective of Sophie, a young woman living in the fairy-tale country of Ingary. She believes she's destined for failure in life due to fairly tale convention: she's was born eldest of three, and thus is sure to fail first. After being cursed by the Witch of the Waste, however, she finds herself compelled to seek her fortune, her feelings of inadequacy notwithstanding. In her haste to find someone to help her with her problem, she stumbles upon the one person who seems least likely to be of service: the Horrible, Heartless Howl, a wizard with a terrifying castle that moves across the countryside, who's rumored to eat the hearts of young girls. Through her verbal fencing with Howl, however, she eventually comes to understand real faults and virtues of the man, even as she comes to learn the truth about herself. It's a charming romp of satiric persiflage and silly encounters, and it has become one of my favorite novels.
Castle in the Air is the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, published in 1990 and also written by Diana Wynne Jones. This time, the story begins not in Ingary, but in a neighboring country called Rashpuht, a fairy-tale rendition of the middle east. Like the first book, it's based on folklore; this time it is Persion/Arab mythology that is parodied, specifically the Thousand and One Nights. Though Howl and Sophie do enter into the story eventually, the book actually revolves around Abdullah, a young clever carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib who loves to daydream. While living his uneventful life, Abdullah one day finds his dreams becoming alarmingly real. After finding - then losing - the girl of his dreams, Abdullah sets off on a quest to rescue her with the help of an egotistical flying carpet, a delightfully destructive genie, and an unscrupulous Strangian soldier. I enjoy this book a great deal and find it to be almost as charming humorous as the first, as well as being a slightly darker and more troubling tale. However, I discovered to my amusement that though Abdullah is closer to the romantic ideal of a hero, and Flower-in-the-Night is a more irresistable and desirable a heroine, I just can't care about them the way I do Sophie and Howl. When the book ended, I was happy for them, but I didn't really have any desire to ever see them in print again. When it comes to Sophie and Howl, though, I could read their bickering all day and never tire of it; even the short glimpses granted of their home life were tantilizing. This is perhaps one of the reasons why CitA, though clever, just isn't as popular as the first book. Though I must add that the eleventh hour "reveal" of Howl was one of the funniest things to happen in either book, ranking right up there with the green slime incident.
Hauru no Ugoku Shiro is a Japanese animated film by Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is based on the first book of the series, Howl's Moving Castle. The film was released in Japan on November 20, 2004, and later in the US and other countries, including (eventually) the UK. It was originally slated to be directed by Mamoru Hosoda of Digimon fame. For reasons which have not been disclosed, the director left the project and the legendary Miyazaki came out of retirement to direct the film. This marks the third time that Miyazaki has retired and come back for "one more film," a trend which started with Princess Mononoke [Mononoke Hime] and Spirited Away [Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi]. The film is an entirely different take on the book, and while some disclaim it on those grounds, I found the alternate perspective breathtaking. It's true that the witty banter and half the humor are gone, and indeed Howl and Sophie are entirely different characters. In place of that Miyazaki highlights the darker and more tragic aspects of Jones' story. The result of his flight of fancy is a beguiling, tender, and sometimes haunting movie. Don't let my description fool you, however. The film still contains many moments of comedy to break up and intensify the more dramatic scenes; it's just that they tend to be in the realm of visual comedy rather than clever reparté. The green slime scene, for example, was just as funny in the film as in the book, even if the original dialogue didn't remain intact.
Diana Wynne Jones is a British author who writes children's and young adult fantasy. Don't let that dissuade you from reading her books if you no longer qualify as "young adult." It's her wit and humor that makes her enjoyable to read and that verbal cleverness appeals to any age. Her most famous stories are probably the Chrestomanci series and the Howl series. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about her. So if you'd like more information than I can offer, a short autobiography can be found on her official site.
Hayao Miyazaki is a famous animation director from Japan. He's probably most well-known for his manga/film Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, though he is also responsible for Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and a host of other films. Studio Ghibli is the animation studio which he helped found with Isao Takahata. In my opinion, Studio Ghibli is one of the best animation studios in the world, right next to Pixar. The reason for this is their imaginative stories and devotion to character, as well as the visual beauty of Studio Ghibli creations. One day, Ghibli will have to go without either Miyazaki or Takahata, both legends in their field. However, films such as The Cat Returns, a film directed by one of the younger Ghibli directors, Hiroyuki Morita, show a lot of promise for the future of the studio.
You can either e-mail me at mary at jazzmess dot com, or you can visit the Animation Republic Forums (warning: not kid-safe) and send me a PM.
Acording to the author herself, "The idea for this book was suggested by a boy in a school I was visiting, who asked me to write a book called The Moving Castle."
Two - Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air
As of now, no. But that doesn't mean she won't wake up one day and decide to write a new Howl book. In other words, there's nothing limiting the series except her inspiration; we can only hope that one day she'll be inspired to write another.
The name of the poem - as mentioned by Howl - is "Song" and it was written by John Donne. This is the complete poem:
GO and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.
If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.
I love the fanciful imagery in the first two stanzas, but it's almost ruined by the acrimony of the third stanza; no wonder DWJ left it out of the book! For the confused: at the time this poem was written, "find" and "wind" were pronounced similarly and thus they did rhyme.
The name of the song is "Sospan Fach" and it's a Welsh rugby song. Though if you read the translated lyrics, they sound more like a lulaby than a fight song.
Cariad is an endearment in Welsh which means 'darling' or 'beloved.'
To date, the film has been released theatrically in Japan, Korea, France, Switzerland (French), Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Belgium, Croatia, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy. Future release dates are as follows:
The currently known DVD release dates are:
September 4th of 2005
If you've visited my Cowboy
Bebop website you'll know me as Fata Morgana. I'm an animation and comics fan.
At the launch of this site, I am 27 years old. Anecdote: The first time I ever read
Howl, I was aproximately 10,000 days old, though I didn't realize it at the time (for
the uninitiated, there's a certain plot significance to Howl turning 10,000 days old
in the book). Currently I'm a music student (I'll finally be a graduate this December)
who works in computers and longs to be a character designer/animator. In short, I'm a
bit of a mess. I have a particular affinity for Studio Ghibli and Pixar films, because
I feel that both of those studios have something that a great many filmmakers
(particularly animators) in this day and age lack - heart and sincerity. Aside from
those studios, there's a long list of animation that I'm fond of, but for the purposes
of this page I'll just post the short list: Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne,
ReBoot, Futurama, The Iron Giant, The Maxx, Invader Zim and Freakazoid. I'm also an
avid reader, and I particularly like fantasy novels.
If you'd like to know more about me personally, you can always visit
my blog.
I read the book and fell in love with it. Later, I saw the movie and fell in love with it - for almost entirely different reasons. I tend to be a purist when it comes to books made into film (I didn't, for example, like the LotR films that much, though visually they are near perfect). Howl is only the second occasion where I was able to enjoy the book and the film equally; the other is the BBC's mini-series of Pride and Prejudice.
The site was named after one of the pieces of music in the soundtrack for the film. Besides the fact that the song brings tears to my eyes, and it plays during one of the most beautiful visual moments I've ever seen in film, I just loved how evocative the image was; to drink a star. My other choice for a title was "Born to Strange Sights", a line from the John Donne poem 'Song' which plays a prominent role in the book.
Yay, now Zoidberg is the popular one!
Do you have questions that aren't answered here? E-mail them to me and I'll see what I can do: