Adapting Book to Movie: Howl's Moving Castle

For my adaptation analysis, I chose to read and watch Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. In the book is about a young girl that is trying to find her place in the world. In the book there self-esteem is a major issue. The book is much more detailed and shows her self-depricating nature. In the book we get her back story about her two sisters and how when her father dies, her stepmother send them two stay with two other women so they will have better future. Sophie stays with her stepmother working in the hat shop her father owned and often hears about the gossip from town. One night in the hat shop the Witch of the Waste, which is one of the villains, visits the shop and put a spell on Sophie making her an elderly woman. Sophie decides to leaver her home and comes up upon Howl’s Moving castle.


In the movies the story is similar. Sophie is turned to an old woman unable to tell anyone of the spell. But instead she only has one sister who is only seen once in the beginning of the film. In the movie there are different characters too. Her mother Fanny is her real mother; her father is never spoken of. Also the first time she meets Wizard Howl is different. In the book, he is known as the wizard who makes women fall in love with him then leaves them. When Sophie meets Howl in the book she does not know it is him. It a May Day celebration and she is on her way to see her sister. He immediately tries to buy her a drink and she is hesitant and keeps on walking and he allows her. Later after she has entered the moving castle she realizes it is the same boy but he does not know it is Sophie since she looks now like an old woman. In the movie, Howl actually saves Sophie from two men that corner her in an alley. And he escorts her to meet her sister. Howl is a much different person in the book than in the movie. Also Michael in the book, another inhabitant of the castle, seems much older than the child he plays in the movie. Also in the movie his name is Markl. Calcifer, the fire demon keeps the castle moving and with whom Sophie makes a contract with in the beginning, is also much funnier and has sense of humor that this character in the book.

But one major detail that I was happy they kept in both transitioning from book to movie was all the different portals both physical and human. The first portal in my opinion is the castle itself. When Sophie step into the castle she is in a new world full of spells, fire demon, and is now able to travel to other places just by the turn of a dial. When it comes to the castle its in constant movement in the hills above Market Chipping where Sophie lived. But by a certain dial depending on which color its pointing toward the world outside the castle is different. One can go to Porthaven down by the sea, with the dial on red one can get to Kingsbury, where the king lives, and Market Chipping when the green is chosen. When the black color is chosen there is nothing but darkness and readers learn this is Howl’s childhood. While there are many place the castle can take someone the changes that happen to people can also be seen as portals. The ever-changing characters into different disguises allow them to learn more about themselves. In the movie Howl turns into a bird often and helps combat a war that is going on. In the story there is an ever-prescent theme of loving one’s self no matter what you look like on the outside. Howl and Sophie still fall in love even though they are both under spells. It is their personalities and the discovery of themselves that bring them together.

All details aside, it is a good adaptation. All the major characters are present and the theme is uplifting to children with good morals. While the filmmakers did not need to add the war aspect, I understand from a cinema sense there had to be a plot line more than just spells and finding ones identity.