When I began watching “Howl’s Moving Castle” with my roommates I was looking forward to finally seeing what the thrill was all about and to finally experiencing the film that warranted its place as my roommates’ one and only tattoo.
As the animated faces flooded the screen full of vibrant colors and images, causing the little girl that still loved in my heart to come alive at the sight. The classic animation of a Studio Ghibli film was one I was vaguely familiar with from the times my roommates had started up classics such as Spirited Away and Ponyo films that also fell under Studio Ghibli’s name.
The first we hear of Sophie’s voice is as she tries to decline the advances of two very pushy soldiers. This shows us that in the world that they have created within the screen that Sophie is considered as the soldier who puts it as very cute. This moment is also a very realistic moment that comments on society, the history of men in positions of power such as police officers and soldiers using their positions in power to harass women and girls like Sophie. Unfortunately, this is a common experience for many women, yet not all of us are as lucky as Sophie is to have a Wizard come to our rescue, let alone a wizard as handsome as Howl. This is a commentary on the treatment of women as well and the way in which we are objectified and used by many of the men in the world. This interaction is one that is taken from reality to exist amongst the fantastical, it grounds the film, while crafting a sense of comfort around Howl by positioning him as a hero. The interaction also adds a comment about the real world, exposing a moment that is much less unrealistic than the magic and wizards.
The colors that make these films so beautiful are the same exact things that tell the story. As the movie grows tense and unsettling, the colors grow darker and the music gets more dense, the keys humming a rhythm that matches the ice that is meant to prickle at the viewer’s spines. As the characters become unsettled, upset, or maybe even afraid the colors in the film move and evolve with the characters emotions, reflecting them with sound and color that projects their emotions from the screen to the viewers soul.
Throughout the film I found that the magic that entranced so many viewers was metaphorical in many ways. For our main wizard Howl specifically, his magic exists as one with his emotions often spilling over and blurring the lines between them. His magic oozes out of him in that it seemed almost metaphorical to mental health. Howl’s violent ups and downs that are expressed through the way his magic seems to darken the world around the room, quite literally oozing out of him in ways that depict many kinds of mental illness, bipolar and borderline personality disorder specifically. This is shown when he comes crashing down the stairs with his orange hair, nearly nude. This is the most disheveled we see him and it quickly crashes the viewers prior convictions about him. This sends him into a spiral about his self image, his appearance and he is quickly thrusted into a mental breakdown with the addition of magic. His emotions consume himself to the point he becomes a gooey mess, literally melting as though his entire body is crying with him. The colors and imagery throughout this scene mirror what the audience is intended to be feeling along with the characters, as they witness things the audience experiences through their eyes with the color and shadow that is drawn onto the screen. The violent crash and change of emotions being distinguished by his hair color, crashing violently from one end of the spectrum with white hair, that is often meant to mean purely and innocent, then changing to the complete contrast of the black hair, being a color of darkness, and solitude.
It’s Sophie’s personality that drives the movie. It’s the sassy, the fire, and the stubbornness that floats through her dialogue and how other characters react to her. Her ability to tame the fire spirit Calcifer speaks volumes about her place in the house, as well as the fact she is a force of nature herself. This fact also impresses Howl greatly, something that shows an evolution in their relationship.
As I expected when I began, the movie holds a great deal of metaphors, such as the very first interaction between Sophie and Howl in which he not only rescues her, assuming a role of a knight in shining armor, and then before she knows it he’s quite literally sweeping her off her feet and making her dance on air. The story begins to be clear from there as their interactions match with intensity, the love they grow to share is palpable from their very first meeting. This is shown again in Howl’s home, as Sophie sleeps giving her body a brief break from her aged curse, Howl watches over her, a blatant example of the care he shows her. The way in which Howl interacts with her from the moment they meet is full of affection, including the first words he utters that foreshadow the rest of the film, “There you are, I’ve been looking for you.” Howl’s first line is a perfect foreshadow to the rest of the film, having the fabric of the narrative flowing through the love Sophie and Howl share.
An important moment in the film that I found struck a chord with me in many ways was, Sophie’s breakdown in the rain, a historically sad form of weather, where she finally breaks down over her looks, finally expressing the self deprecation we’ve seen subtly shown in Sophie’s dialogue and body language since the beginning, and the fact she is now even considered an old withered old lady, we finally get to witness her cry over her loss of her looks and grieve the way she was perceived. This moment of grief is also a testament to the value society places on looks. Sophie exclaims to Howl, “You think you’ve got it bad? I’ve never once been beautiful in my entire life.” A heartbreaking line that is executed with the crack and break in her voice from the tears that end up spilling down her wrinkled cheeks. The break in composure matches the crack that breaks through the viewer’s heart as we watch Sophie – whose character has taken everything that has been thrown her way with stride and a positive albeit slightly stubborn attitude– finally break down and pity herself. Sophie doesn’t just pity the curse, she not once says she is ugly because of the curse that has turned her into a 90 year old woman, her emotions cover her relationship with her appearance as a whole, as this is a complex relationship that many women can relate too. The pressure that is placed upon appearance can be crushing, as shown throughout the film as both Howl and Sophie struggle with their appearance. From the very beginning as Sophie speaks with her sister, she is speaking down on her looks and feeling the negative feelings that come along with being a woman in a society that ridicules everything about you. This is a stark contrast to her sister who was decorated to the maxes in an effort to please those around her, another end of the girlhood spectrum.
The drastic change in Sophie’s hair as the film goes on shows the fact that she was in fact changed by meeting Howl, that this adventure and the magic she experienced impacted her in a way that forever changed her. The magic and love that Howl brought into her life leaves a mark on her. The symbolism that Howl’s hair becomes dark and Sophie’s becomes light shows that they have shared parts of themselves with one another and that they have forever impacted each other’s souls with the love they shared.
Overall the most impactful moment exists in tandem with the most impactful line in the film, where Sophie returns Howl’s heart to his chest, a metaphor for “stealing” one’s heart when they are in love. During this beautiful moment where Calcifer confirms that the relationship that exists between Howl and herself is one that is bound by the strings of fate, something that is heavily hinted at throughout the film. Upon returning his heart Sophie utters the brilliant line, “a heart’s a heavy burden.” This line is impactful for the audience as it speaks about how much effort it must take to love and be loved by others in your life and how all consuming emotions can be. This line continues the idea that Howl is an ongoing metaphor for mental illness, from his all consuming emotions with high highs and low lows to his messy home and lack of organization accompanied with his obvious self image issue.
This film uses beautiful color usage as well as a multitude of sound effects to add to each and every scene from the sad to the happy. The color and music have a part to play and add loads to the overall emotion and look of the film. The film does an excellent job at using dialogue for world building, using friends of Sophie to show that magic is a common thing within the world they are welcoming the viewers into. Sophie’s sister at the beginning of the film exercises more concern for her sister than shock at the magic that had caused Sophie to float.
The use of characters outside Howl and Sophie to show characterization such as Calcifer to show her stubbornness and her sister to show the contrast between how Sophie views herself and is viewed to how the world views her sister, as we see her with men flanking her in every scene.
Overall “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a beautiful film that follows themes such as transformation, inner beauty, mental health, and self image issues. The film uses beautiful imagery in the form of artistic animation to entrance the viewer into a make believe world that has bits of the real world leaking in through the sides, using things from the real word such as real wars and real conflicts to ground the viewer into the film and connect to it in ways that the audience never would have expected it.
The way in which their story comes in a full circle and their hearts grow tied together by the fate of time provides the viewer with a truly striking piece of art that depicts a love story that goes down in the history books and has become many people’s favorite movie. This film definitely lived up to my expectations, through its interpretation of mental illness and the way in which every aspect of the film welcomed me with open arms. My favorite aspect of the film is the way in which their emotions exist in tandem with the magic of the world, causing physical manifestations of how mental illness feels.
This film lived up to its expectations in every way outside of the exceeding length that made it challenging to digest; however the love story and the magic sinks its claws into you from the very first second that the screen lights up, filled with colorful animations that entice you into Sophie and Howl’s world. The unity of magic and the familiarity of the world outside of the screen provides the viewer with both comfort and intrigue making it a film most find sanctuary within.
