Howl's Moving Castle Essay

An adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle, which became very popular in 2004, is Hayao Miyazaki's Howl’s Moving Castle. Miyazaki adapted the story with an agenda: to illustrate to the world the evils of world. This serves the film as an allegorical film protesting war and the riddance of humanity. As a casual observer, it is basically a love story between the Wizard Howl and Sophie Hatter, but the true meaning deep within the film, there are three or more ways Miyazaki changed Diana’s story to drive towards his anti-war message he created during the peaked rage of the war in the Middle East.
The clearest and most significant difference between the original novel and the animated movie lies in the fact that the latter specifically focuses on ‘war’, whereas the

The audience of the animation could depict the “love under fire” or “romance under the fire of war” that Miyazaki may have desired. Many scenes depict a relation between the post -9/11 political context and the ensuing US-led War on Terror, especially the 2003 Iraq War. This is because the director showed his strong opposition to the US-led War on Terror. The film Howl’s Moving Castle, created in the middle of the Iraq War, deals with a war in Europe in the 19th century, the “age of patriotism” when great powers expanded their military power and territories in Asia and Africa. In another historical perspective, the viewer could analyze that the town where Sophie lives is the motif of Alsace, which became a source of territorial dispute and armed conflict between France and Germany for many years. Also, the bombing of the film reminds the audience of the bombing during the Second World War. Nonetheless, the works of the film was heavily influenced by the US-led War on Terror as well as the