Sophie also completely misreads the situation with the Witch of the Waste, trying to talk down someone she believes is just a customer. She’s also awkward in situations where others try to throw their weight around who knows what would have happened with the guards if Howl (Christian Bale) hadn’t arrived when he did. Sophie genuinely doesn’t think she’s beautiful enough to draw the attention of a wizard who supposedly consumes beautiful women’s hearts. She’s self-deprecating, but not in a snarky way. I love Sophie because her flaws are so believable, particularly for a single young woman. A movie’s characters tend to make it or break it for me, and the leads in Howl’s Moving Castle are particularly strong. There’s a lot to talk about in H owl’s Moving Castle. While Sophie learns Howl’s secrets and the two grow closer, a war rages between Ingary and its neighboring kingdom, whose Prince has gone missing. There, she finds a living scarecrow who leads her to Howl’s moving castle, where she stays on as a cleaning lady. However, they’re seen together by agents of The Witch of the Waste, who curses Sophie with old age, merely telling her, “Give my regards to Howl.” Sophie ventures out into the waste, an unkempt and mostly uninhabited tract of land to which the kingdom banished the Witch. Sophie’s humdrum existence is interrupted when a pair of royal guards harass her in the street, and a magnificent stranger protects her, whisking her away. She’s insecure about her appearance, shy, and easily intimidated. In Ingary, a fictional land where magic coexists with early-20th century technology, Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is an ordinary girl who runs her late father’s hat shop. However, the results of the adaptations couldn’t be more different.
Howl’s Moving Castle is based on a novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, an author the studio would revisit with their most recent film, Earwig and the Witch. I reviewed the former a while back, and the latter is one of the main reasons I wanted to review Studio Ghibli’s output. In an endeavor to return to normal, Sophie must accompany Howl and a myriad of eccentric companions-ranging from a powerful fire demon to a hopping scarecrow-in his living castle, on a dangerous adventure as a raging war tears their kingdom apart.I like most Studio Ghibli movies, but my absolute favorites have to be Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. Unfortunately, this encounter, brief as it may be, spurs the vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste-in a fit of jealousy caused by a past discord with Howl-to put a curse on the maiden, turning her into an old woman. However, Sophie’s simple life takes a turn for the exciting when she is ensnared in a disturbing situation, and the mysterious wizard appears to rescue her. Sophie, as the plain daughter of a hatmaker, does not expect much from her future and is content with working hard in the shop.
Plot Summary: That jumbled piece of architecture, that cacophony of hissing steam and creaking joints, with smoke billowing from it as it moves on its own… That castle is home to the magnificent wizard Howl, infamous for both his magical prowess and for being a womanizer-or so the rumor goes in Sophie Hatter’s small town. Watch Howl’s Moving Castle (Dub) gogoanime