Cursed with Insecurity: Howl’s Moving Castle in print and film - Anime Feminist
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Released in Japan in 2004, Howl’s Moving Castle remains one of Studio Ghibli’s classic films. But to anyone who was inspired to read the book it’s based on (written by Diana Wynne Jones), the film reads less like an adaptation than a complete reimagining. One of the biggest changes is the character arc of our protagonist, Sophie Hatter.

A comparison of the original novel by Dianne Wynne Jones and the adaption of the novel by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

  • flicker@lemmy.world
    5·
    8 months ago

    This is an excellent critique, but being about one of my favorite books, it left out the most valuable thing of all.

    Sophie is portrayed in the movie (and in this review) as being under a curse by a jealous witch. That’s completely incorrect. In the book, you learn that the Witch of the Wastes can’t reverse the curse because Sophie cursed herself. Like her younger sister, Sophie is a powerful witch, and the curse she placed on the hat at the start of the entire story was what cursed her!

    It wasn’t love or something that let her break the ties that bound Calcifer and Howl. It was her spell, spoken over Howl’s beating heart, that set them free. And that’s the most important thing to miss of all! She is the driving force behind her own misery, and only she could end it!

    It pisses me off that the movie didn’t find time to spell it out, but until this review I thought they chose to leave it out particularly because it was so special that no one ended up knowing why Sophie was so important, other than Sophie. Seeing someone who read the book miss the entire point makes me feel like the movie really did us a disservice by not spelling it out.