Is The Movie Howl’s Moving Castle More Fanfiction Than An Adaptation?

Spoilers

I remembered watching and reading Howl’s Moving Castle when I was a teenager. I had seen the movie first and wanted to know how it compared to the Diana Wynne Jones novel. I remembered the general idea from the movie, but from the book I only remembered one small detail. It has been over 20 years since I read and watched either, so I wasn’t surprised that my memory failed on the sorted details. Or should I have been?

When I started reading Howl’s Moving Castle recently, I knew there were going to be some differences between the book and the movie. A movie is not going to capture every single detail of the book, but I do expect it to have the same themes and overarching story. However, reading and watching side by side, I realized that the movie was more inspired by the book than a direct adaptation. The differences were so glaring that the movie could have changed the names, and you wouldn’t have known the difference except for the castle, possibly.

Let’s start with the man himself, Howl. In the book, he really isn’t that appealing a character. He is very cowardly, vain, throws multiple tantrums, constantly flirts with girls, and breaks their hearts. He uses his magic on frivolous things. He uses Calcifer more as a tool to feed his desires instead of a living being. He doesn’t want to use his powers to help others. The king asked him to find the prince who has been missing for a while. Howl could definitely do it, but chooses not to. Sophie thinks he is ridiculous throughout the entire book, which makes it baffling that she falls in love with him in the end.  

The movie version of Howl is easier to swallow. He is brooding, yet kind. He treats Sophie, Calcifer, and his apprentice with the utmost respect. As in the book, he avoids the king’s summons, but for a different reason. Wizards who are summoned face two choices. Either they join the king’s army and lose their humanity by becoming monsters, or their powers are forcibly removed from them. The war the king starts kills more people than it proclaims to be saving. Howl tries to fight in the war by taking out as many monstrous wizards as he can, even though using the immense amount of magic is hurting him. He comes across as brave, noble, and willing to fight for what is right. 

I found it interesting that they cut out Howl’s background in the movie, though. In the book, Howl is actually from our modern-day Wales and has family that he visits often. In the movie, his origins are the fantasy world where everyone lives. Of all the things to be cut, I wished that it would have stayed in to elevate the character of Howl and show he was more worldly. Plus, it would have been fun to see Sophie’s reaction to a world that was vastly different from her own. 

Speaking of character changes, the Witch of the Waste has a dramatic one. In the book, she is the villain. She cursed Sophie, and the demon inside of her is obsessed with gaining Howl’s heart and Calcifer in order to become more powerful. In the movie, the Witch of the Waste is a mixed bag. She starts as a villain in the sense that she cursed Sophie and wanted to collect men’s hearts, especially Howl’s. However, she has ambitions to be recognized as a powerful witch by the kingdom, but they see her as a nuisance. They set a trap to drain her powers and make her much older. It made viewers and Sophie feel sympathetic towards her because her agency was taken against her will and very frail.

Another interesting thing that they cut was Sophie’s backstory. In the book, Sophie is the oldest daughter and felt pressured to remain at the hat shop. She constantly fretted over her two sisters’ safety, especially since Howl was pursuing one of her sisters (another reason why I am baffled Sophie chose to be with Howl at the end). The sisters also cared deeply about Sophie and went to great lengths to find her when they found out she was cursed. Even Sophie’s stepmother is worried about her. Sophie also has her own power to speak things to life that she gradually learns how to use. 

In the movie, Sophie only has one sister, and we don’t really see that much of a relationship with them. Sophie’s mother ended up betraying her so that the kingdom wouldn’t hold her prisoner. Sophie doesn’t have the power to speak life into things, but she has power over his own curse. Depending on how confident she is, her age would change from different stages of being old to looking like her original self. When she gains full confidence in herself, the spell is broken. 

The biggest change is the villain of the story. While the Witch of the Waste is the main villain in the book, the villain in the movie is war. The book had no war in it, which changes character motivations, mainly the king  (who weren’t evil in the book). They also created a new character, Madam Suliman, who supports the king’s war efforts. They used their power in the movie not only to start and continue a war that wasn’t necessary, but don’t care about the people they were harming or the destruction they caused. They spread propaganda newspapers to convince the people that the war is for their defense. But it is hard to convince people of that when reality is showing people getting killed and people losing their livelihoods and homes. War is thought of as bringing justice and peace, but the movie showed war as a method to spread chaos and violence to raise one’s own ambitions. 

I was curious about why the war element was added to the film. It seems it was a statement from Hayao Miyazaki about the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He refused to come to the Oscars for Spirited Away because of the US bombing of Iraq. He saw the war as pointless and destructive, which the film illustrates brilliantly by not showing the rivaling kingdoms’ motivations for war. The film just shows destruction and how soldiers lose their humanity to the cause. The war topic actually fits even more now considering the multiple wars that are happening all over the world. We see people slaughtered and lives uprooted because of the mass destructiveness that war carries. 

With all these differences, did any aspect of the film stay the same? There was one thing: how Sophie’s sudden aging affected her. The sudden aging made Sophie realize that she didn’t have to hold back anymore. She could speak her mind and have her own individuality. It freed her from the isolation of her life and allowed her to live in the world. It also showed how older women can be the star of their own story and get the guy in the end instead of being a side character. It was one of the best aspects of the books and the movie, showing that a person can change dramatically with a different perspective. 

However, the movie version of Sophie had an extra layer of depth to her. She showed compassion and kindness for Howl, Calicifer, Howl’s apprentice, and the Witch of the Waste. She saw the good in them and embraced them as a little found family instead of nuisances. She let her emotions do the talking instead of hiding her feelings like the character does in the book. 

Overall, I can see why I didn’t remember the book so well before reading it recently. I blocked it out because it wasn’t as good as the movie. The movie felt more like a well-done fanfiction that elevated what the book didn’t do: showing Sophie had power over her curse by being a well-rounded individual, and having a deeper meaning by showing how war negatively affects everyone except those in power. If you have to choose between the book and the movie, I will always recommend Hayao Miyazaki’s version. It will definitely leave you with an impression that the book is sorely lacking. 

Sources

CBR