Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
"Hauru no ugoku shiro" (original title)

When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking home.

Director:

Hayao Miyazaki

Writers:

Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay), Diana Wynne Jones (novel)

Stars:

Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Akihiro Miwa

Top 250 #186 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chieko Baishô	...	Sofî (voice)
Takuya Kimura	...	Hauru (voice)
Akihiro Miwa	...	Arechi no Majo (voice)
Tatsuya Gashûin	...	Karushifâ (voice)
Ryûnosuke Kamiki	...	Marukuru (voice)
Mitsunori Isaki	...	Koshô (voice)
Yô Oizumi	...	Kakashi no Kabu (voice)
Akio Ohtsuka	...	Kokuô (voice)
Daijiro Harada	...	Hin (voice)
Haruko Kato	...	Sariman (voice)
Jean Simmons	...	Grandma Sophie (voice)
Christian Bale	...	Howl (voice)
Lauren Bacall	...	Witch of the Waste (voice)
Blythe Danner	...	Madame Suliman (voice)
Emily Mortimer	...	Young Sophie (voice)

Storyline

A love story between an 18-year-old girl named Sofî, cursed by a witch into an old woman's body, and a magician named Hauru. Under the curse, Sofî sets out to seek her fortune, which takes her to Hauru's strange moving castle. In the castle, Sophie meets Hauru's fire demon, named Karishifâ. Seeing that she is under a curse, the demon makes a deal with Sophie--if she breaks the contract he is under with Hauru, then Karushifâ will lift the curse that Sophie is under, and she will return to her 18-year-old shape.

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Plot Keywords:

castle | witch | demon | spell | fire | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for frightening images and brief mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [us] Liikkuva Linna [fi]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 June 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Howl's Moving Castle

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$29,133 (Chile) (19 May 2006)

Gross:

$82,187 (Chile) (2 June 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Mitsubishi

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX DTS-ES SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the film was not released in the United Kingdom until 23 September 2005, director Hayao Miyazaki personally traveled to England in the summer of 2004 to give a private showing of the film to Diana Wynne Jones.

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Goofs

When Howl gives Sophie the ring, right before his line "Don't worry, I will follow behind in disguise," Howl's eyes are brown, not his normal blue.

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Quotes

[after Sofi puts a pan and bacon on Calcifer]
Calcifer: Here's another curse for you - may all your bacon burn.

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Connections

Referenced in Anime: Drawing a Revolution (2007)
Images and clips shown during the Hayao Miyazaki segment

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Soundtracks

"Sekai no Yakusoku"
Written by Youmi Kimura
Performed by Chieko Baisho

User Reviews

Thank you so much for this movie Mr. Miyazaki

I Don't get words to express what I felt when coming out of the cinema, Howl's Moving Castle is an absolutely fantastic film and has even out Laputa and Totoro as my favourite Miyazaki film.

The story is amazing and the characters and creatures are as excellently crafted and fun to watch as ever. The voice actors and music are perfect Joe Hisaishi in my opinion is the best contemporary composer.

My only criticism (very little) is maybe the ending (last minutes) that rises suddenly, far from the habitual perfection of the catharsis final of the Miyazaki's films but nothing important

The movie has a really bad thing of the film: THE LONG WAITING TO SEE IT AGAIN!

ESSENTIAL