When a story is taken from its original text and transferred onto the big screen, plot points, themes, and author’s intent is often lost in the adaptation. Throughout the history of film, novels have served as the foundation for many famous films: True Grit, Great Expectations, The Maltese Falcon, and To Kill A Mockingbird, just to name a few. Often these adaptations are of children’s stories, like The Wizard of Oz or Babe, and even more modern adaptations like the Harry Potter series are adapted
Howl Pendragon (or Howell Jenkins depending on his location) is from the Moving Castle trilogy by Diana Wynne Jones and the Howl’s Moving Castle movie by Studio Ghibli. Howl is a mysterious wizard who is rumored to be beautiful but terrible and was often accused of eating the hearts of lovely girls due to his habit of leading women on only to dump them. When he was twenty one he gave his heart away to a falling star out of pity for it which seems to have made him lose some of his humanity. Due to
The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda by Tom Angle Berger (2010) This book is a great example the popular fiction genre of children’s books. It is designed to appeal to the middle school aged child, which it does an excellent job of from the cover art, to the different fonts, and ‘rumpled’ look of the pages. While the Star Wars reference inherent in the Yoda and light saber may deter a few readers who are not fans of the movie, those who take the book off the shelve will be hooked from the opening
Howl’s Moving Castle is usually known because of its 2004 Studio Ghibli adaptation, not the original novel by Diana Wynne Jones, written in 1986. While it is a beautiful adaptation, it loses some of the fairy-tale magic that is in the book. In the book, Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three, and yet somehow gets the attention of the wizard Howl. Sophie finds out that she is a witch with the power to bring things to life as she helps Howl and his fire demon Calcifer rid the country of the Witch of
When a story is taken from its original text and transferred onto the big screen, plot points, themes, and the author’s intent are often lost in the adaptation. In particular, the young adult fantasy novel Howl’s Moving Castle, published by Diana Wynne Jones in 1986, was adapted into an anime film in 2004 by Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Spirited Away and Ponyo, among other works. Since the film’s debut, reviewers, scholars, and fans have argued about the changes Miyazaki has made in adapting the
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a captivating story that incorporates fantasy and fairy tale elements to capture the attention of readers. The novel features Sophie, a wonderful protagonist who is featured as a good person, but still has her flaws. Sophie’s major flaw is being nosey. Moreover, if she is told to go somewhere or ask specific questions, she cannot help herself, but she still does it anyway. These aspects extend to Jones, who is also a likable character but has distinct
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
When Miyazaki started his career he was a very ambitious with new film ideas and amazing art work. In April 1963, he got a job at Toei Studio, working as an artist on the theatrical feature anime Watchdog Bow Wow and Wolf Boy. Soon after he arrived he became a leader in a labor dispute, becoming chief secretary of Toei's labor union in 1964. He first gained recognition while working as an artist on the Toei production Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon in 1965. He didn’t like the original ending
So let’s talk about the much-feared affliction called writer’s block. Rather, let’s talk about why I don’t give much credence to it. Here’s my problem. Virtually every discussion of it I’ve ever seen points to some cause that doesn’t have anything to do with writing. There’s a tragedy in the family. Financial stress. A marriage breaks up. Illness. I might even lend some credence to these claims if writing were some ephemeral process that we don’t understand. It isn’t. Writing is primarily a skill
Reading and Censorship of the Harry Potter Novels J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which have reached worldwide popularity have an effect on children has not been matched by any other book. The novels have encouraged children to read for entertainment instead of turning to television or video games. When a piece of literature inspires children as the Harry Potter novels do, limiting a child’s access to the novels seems ridiculous. Unfortunately, this is what is happening with Harry Potter