Howl's Moving Castle - 2004
Early 20th-century bombers destroy cities while witches and wizards struggle for political control in the midst of this unconventional love story.
"While Sophie is busy with her hats, a moving castle comes to a halt on the outskirts of her hometown. The restless abode is reputed to belong to a wizard who 'was known to amuse himself by collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts' (Jones 2000, pp. 11-12)" - Dani Cavallaro
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The two quickly come across one another, an event that leaves Sophie cursed by a jealous witch. She seeks out the handsome wizard in hopes of breaking the curse, half-expecting to get her heart eaten by the infamous mage.
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Sophie Hatter, as a young woman, is often afraid of other's opinions despite her talents. When she is cursed into old age, she becomes more confident in herself, even setting out from her small village to find a great wizard.
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Sophie serves as a matriarch to all in Howl's Castle upon arriving.
Howl Pendragon is a reclusive wizard who spreads vicious rumors about himself to keep anonymity and isolation. Even still, he is hospitable of Sophie's arrival and fights for peace in the war of several nations.
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Like Sophie, Howl is cursed.
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Joining Sophie in her quest are several other magical entities, young and old, cursed and curser. These quaint conjurers are relations of Howl, and stay with him in his mechanized castle.
"One of MIyazaki's central preoccupations was the extent to which the theme of war could be reconciled with the tale's romantic strand, because in a world ravaged by utterly unscrupulous conflicts it is 'very hard to be in love.'" - Dani Cavillari, The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki
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Throughout the film, there are periods of hope for a happy life (lighter shades of blue, green, pink) consistently interrupted by periods of war.
Below is a "smoothed" version, in which the vertical pixels are averaged out.
Miyazaki has always expressed his pacifist views, but the 2003 invasion of Iraq prompted him to make a film that was dominantly anti-war.
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Howl's Moving Castle is the anime adaptation of the fantasy novel (of the same name) by British fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones. Several changes were made in this transition between mediums, but the cast of characters is mirrored in the film. Studio Ghibli's version made war a central theme in the film as well.
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Among others, the war stories of Robert Westall and Philippa Pearce also influenced Miyazaki from a young age. These authors managed to convey war's destruction on both a personal and societal level to the director at a young age, impacting his work throughout his life.
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Miyazaki has stated that the West and Japan are much more connected that people think, and that Europe has profoundly impacted Japanese culture, his works especially. Many of his works use settings in Europe, including some of his earliest like Future Boy Conan and Heidi, Girl of the Alps.
