On the other hand, Miyazaki decided to focus the biggest part of his version on the war between the reign of Ingary and an unknown country.
The author only put it in the background: we learn that the king wants Howl to find his brother because his skills would be useful in the upcoming war, but it is only a passing element. The first important difference that we can notice is the theme of war: one of the major topics of the film, it is almost absent in the book. Very important: if you don’t want any spoilers, stop reading! In my next article I will focus on the other two novels. In this article I will focus on the major changes between film and novel and I will tell you what I liked about the story. Miyazaki based his work on the first book, but there are a lot of differences. So I discovered that, while the animated film is “only” one, the books are actually three: Howl’s Moving Castle (1986), Castle in the Air (1990) and House of Many Ways (2008). I’d been attracted to it since I learnt that Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle (which I absolutely adore) is based on a novel. This summer, I decided to read a fantasy saga: the Moving Castle one, by Diana Wynne Jones. Also, the garden at the edge of the Waste is shown to be merged with the Porthaven Marshes as Howl's Secret Garden.The drawing in the cover of the book was inspired by the film’s version of the castle, not the novel’s As mentioned above, the Waste in the film is different from the one in the books. The Waste is first seen when the Castle is travelling through it. Howl flies Sophie across the Waste, revealing that Lily Angorian was the Witch's Fire Demon, which had consumed her and she was his true antagonist. She arrives at the Witch's castle, where the Witch reveals that is was a trick to get Sophie to come to the Waste which had been successful. He travels there using Howl's Seven-League Boots. The Waste is first seen when Sophie is lured there by the Witch of the Waste after recieving a message to rescue Lily Angorian. Bitter and resentful, she was eventually able to make her way back into the kingdom proper with the death of the king who had exiled her. The hilly grasslands around the valley and the surrounding mountains seem to be referred to as the Waste quite often in the movie, without any notion of an actual wasteland.Īpproximately 50 years before the beginning of the novel, the Witch of the Waste, whose name is now seemingly unknown, was banished by the King of Ingary and his Royal Wizards to live out her days in exile in the Waste.
In the movie, the Waste and the Folding Valley seem to be one in the same, or at least very closely related. Inside is much larger than it appears outside (in contrast to Howl's moving castle, which is only a small house within, but a large castle outside). The Witch of the Waste lived in a tall, spindly castle that appeared to be made of sandy clay flower pots stacked one-atop-another. Sophie Hatter collects fresh flowers here daily for her flower shop when in hiding with Howl. First started by Wizard Suliman and continued by Wizard Howl, it was created to try to fence in the Witch of the Waste. Nothing grows here, and there is hardly ever any weather - only hot sun.Īt the borders of the Waste lays a large garden. The Waste itself is a great expanse of barren, arid desert, seemingly of packed clay.