Howl's Moving Castle
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Sophie is a young hatmaker whose quiet life is upended when a witch, angered by her brief encounter with the wizard Howl, lays a curse on her that gives her the body of an old woman. Unable to stay in her home town, she sets out and eventually takes shelter in Howl's walking castle, where she installs herself as its housekeeper without revealing who she really is. The castle is shared by Howl, his young apprentice Markl and the fire demon Calcifer, whose power keeps the whole structure moving under a bargain with Howl that he cannot disclose. As the king presses Howl to join the war, Sophie becomes caught up in the wizard's refusal to serve and in the mystery binding him to Calcifer.
The film was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Toshio Suzuki and Tomohiko Ishii for Studio Ghibli, released in 2004. It is the eleventh of the sixteen features he has directed, arriving between Spirited Away and Ponyo. The Japanese voice cast includes Chieko Baisho as Sophie, Takuya Kimura as Howl, Akihiro Miwa as the Witch of the Waste and Tatsuya Gashuin as Calcifer, with 57 credited cast members and 177 credited crew.
Made for about 24 million dollars, it took roughly 260 million dollars worldwide, a large return on its budget. Audiences rate it highly, at 8.2 on IMDb from over half a million votes and 8.4 on TMDB, while critics' reviews give it 7.7 from 185 reviews, a favourable but somewhat cooler assessment than that of the general public.
What's left behind the scenes
- Before filming began, the art team traveled through Europe in search of suitable landscapes for the film. They found them in the eastern province of Alsace, France.
- According to director Hayao Miyazaki, the prototype for the moving castle was the hut on chicken legs from Russian folk tales.
- Mamoru Hosoda was originally supposed to direct the film.
- Hayao Miyazaki called this film the first anime for adults.
- Hayao Miyazaki and Lauren Bacall, being long-time fans of each other's work, first met at a subtitled screening of the film in New York. Bacall reportedly jokingly asked Miyazaki if he was married.
- The film was created on a computer, but the backgrounds and characters were drawn by hand and then digitized. The storyboard consisted of 1400 scenes and was completed on January 16, 2004. Rough animation was completed on June 25 of the same year.
- The film is based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel "Howl's Moving Castle" (1986).
- The original title of the film translates as "Howl's Moving Castle".
- Before its national release in Japan, "Howl's Moving Castle" was shown at the 61st Venice International Film Festival in 2004. It was the first anime film ever to open the festival.
- Christian Bale immediately agreed to voice any role in the English version of the film after watching "Spirited Away." He ultimately became the voice of Howl.
- In Diana Wynne Jones' novel, the demon Calcifer is repeatedly noted to hum a song about a "little saucepan." This refers to the well-known Welsh folk song "Sosban Fach" ("Little Saucepan"), traditionally often performed at rugby matches. The chorus repeats the lines "Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân/ Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr" ("Little saucepan is boiling on the fire, big saucepan is boiling in the hands").
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