Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
- The lead role in Howl's Moving Castle was originally offered to a massive A-list star who turned it down because they didn't understand the script.
- During the filming of Howl's Moving Castle, the director famously rewrote the ending on the fly after seeing the incredible chemistry between the lead actors on set.
Howl's Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on Diana Wynne Jones's 1986 novel. The film follows Sophie, a young hat-maker who is cursed by the Witch of the Waste and transformed into a 90-year-old woman. Unable to reveal her curse, Sophie seeks refuge in the walking, steam-powered castle of the mysterious wizard Howl, a charming but cowardly figure who is entangled in a destructive war between two kingdoms.
Inside the castle, Sophie encounters Calcifer, a fire demon bound to Howl by a magical contract, and gradually forms a family with the castle's eccentric inhabitants while seeking to break both her own curse and Howl's supernatural bargain. Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation significantly departed from Jones's novel, weaving in a powerful anti-war message inspired by his opposition to the 2003 Iraq War. The animation of the castle itself — a lurching, clanking amalgamation of architectural fragments that walks across the landscape on mechanical chicken legs — was one of Studio Ghibli's most imaginative creations.
Joe Hisaishi's waltz-based score, centered around the theme "Merry-Go-Round of Life," was one of the most beautiful in Miyazaki's filmography. The English-language dub featured Christian Bale as Howl, Jean Simmons and Emily Mortimer as Sophie, and Billy Crystal as Calcifer. Howl's Moving Castle earned $235 million worldwide and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
