Howl's Moving Castle

The book was a little difficult to get into at first, but then I found my self not being able to put the book down. My favorite part of the book was at the end when the twist of Miss Lily Angorian was revealed to be the Wicked Witch of the Waste fire demon by Howl. The book has so many intertwined relationships, I wish that quality carried more over to the movie, which I watched afterwards. I vaguely remember the movie which made reading the book much easier without the pre context. The different worlds Diana Wynne Jones describe are all distinct and different. She takes you across this world filled with different environments, the quaint bustling town which Sophie was raised in, the vast luxuriousness and promptness of Kingsbury, and the oven hot harsh wilderness of the Waste. In the book, I missed the development of Sophie's feelings for Howl and vice versa. I did see the two bonding and the relationship growing stronger but I missed those feelings evolving into something more romantic. Sophie did reject the idea of Howl having feelings for her multiple times telling herself she wasn't pretty enough. In the book Diana Wynne Jones has Howl chasing after multiple pretty girls, making it appearing Sophie was the last thing on Howl's mind. In the film, Hayao Miyazaki choose to eliminate the active roles of these girls and focused on the interaction between Howl and Sophie.

I enjoy Diana Wynne Jones creation of her story. Hayao Miyazaki recreation Howl's Moving Castle is very different from the novel; the story has evolved to be more of his own. The film's plot is heavily influenced by World War I with battleships and aircrafts elements. Miyazaki represent Howl to be the anti war hero and all about make love not war. He incorporates different problems in the plot, shifting the conflict between man verse man, to man verses war. There are also a lot of character changes and shift of roles, but the general idea of the relationships are still present. Both Howl and Sophie broke their curses with the power of love.