Howl's Moving Castle: The Book vs. The Movie

I will admit I saw the Studio Ghibli  adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy tale (the link sends you to the Disney related site, the actual website for the animation studio is in Japanese). I adore manga and anime, and Howl's Moving Castle the movie version is one of my favorite anime of all time. I realized I needed to read the book, since I was chastised by a teenaged girl when I was helping her once in the Teen section at the Barnes & Noble. She was looking for something to read, since she had already "read everything". I'd suggested Howl's Moving Castle, to which I received the hipster wannabe reply of "I already read it." I then mentioned I've seen the movie, but hadn't gotten around to read the book yet. Which then came the even more snotty, hipster reply of "The movie is nothing like the book, *eye roll* The book is so much better."

Well, excuse me.


I'm afraid to admit that I was a little guilted and shamed into buying the book the next pay period because of what the girl said. Nine times out of ten, the book is better than the movie. So much does get lost between the two mediums; I figured that the book would fill in some of the blanks that I naturally figured were there.

The two might be fire and ice in their differences.

First, the basic premise of the story.

The land of Ingary is a magical land, full of demons and spirits, sprites and faeries, wizards and witches, and all things fantastical. But there are also normal people as well. One of those normal people is Sophie, a young girl who works at a hat shop in Market Chipping. She is just trying to get through life in the shadows of her two beautiful and successful sisters, as well as trying to just carry on with normalcy while the nations are preparing for an eminent battle. Apparently a prince was kidnapped from Sophie's kingdom and the government blamed a neighboring kingdom. On day, while minding her own business, Sophie inadvertently insults a witch. But not just any witch, the Witch of the Wastes: one of the most feared magic users in all of the kingdoms. In a slightly confusing exchange between the two women, the Witch of the Wastes curses Sophie so that she slowly turns into an old woman. Ashamed of what happened to her, Sophie goes off into exile, but also on a quest to find someone who can lift this curse.

Her travels bring her into the Wastes, a vast wilderness where most of the wizards and wizards live away from civilization. While out in the Wastes, she meets Howl, who is comparable if not more powerful than the Witch of the Wastes; rather she runs into his magical conglomeration of a house. It walks on giant legs and is a mismatched collection of house parts. She finds herself invited into his home and passes herself off as a cleaning lady. While in the home, she meets a varied cast of characters: Marko, Howl's apprentice,  Calcifer, the fire demon who kept the magical house moving, and Howl himself. She makes quick friends with Marko and Calcifer, but Howl is impossible to get along with.

Where the two versions of the story branch off drastically here. The movie focuses more on the coming battle and how the two warring kingdoms are biding for Howl's help. Howl doesn't agree to take either side and lives in the strange limbo of his house. Howl hides from the world in his house and refuses to take responsibility. The movie also focuses on breaking Howl's own curse, a promise he made to Calcifer when he was younger that binds the two together: if Calcifer dies, or burns out, then Howl dies, too. Now Sophie's focus is on Howl and trying to figure out his curse and how to help him break free.

The book focuses more on Howl as he slowly grows and gets some maturity. He faces the reasons why he has hid, and what he is hiding from. More is revealed about the relationship between the Witch of the Waste and Howl, how he had broken her heart once because he was selfish, arrogant, and immature. Howl makes it difficult to live with, but Sophie knows that she has to tough it out to get him to lift her curse without telling him about the curse. The book also reveals a delightful little tidbit about Howl's past: He's from another dimension. I won't tell too much about this part, because it'd be a spoiler, and I hate spoiling things. But it's a super cute part of the story. That little plot twist was not even touched on in the movie. The book also shows Sophie going off to face the Witch of the Waste herself, since Howl is still too scare/immature to face his own problems. Here, in her battle with the Witch, Sophie finally breaks her curse and finds out what happened to the kidnapped prince.

I think the main difference between the two tales is that Hayao Miyazaki boiled down the main plot of the book and just focused on the relationship between Sophie and Howl. Diana Wynne Jones' original tale has a lot more subtly and character building between all the characters, although it still focuses on Sophie and Howl. The personal growth of Howl from spoiled, immature boy to understanding and responsible man is gradual to Sophie in the story---if not nonexistent; but the reader can tell that being around Sophie has changed Howl and he does certain things to and for her to try and show he's changed.The journey of Sophie toward the releasing of her own curse is even more subtle in the book than the movie. Of course in the movie, the visual cues help add context and help the viewer understand what's happening. The subtle reveal in the book is almost missed until the very end.

I know that comparing the book and the movie is like trying to herd cats (which is actually not as hard as people make it out to be) but the two are so similar and yet utterly different that now I see it's almost impossible to explain it without having experienced the two for yourself. I still adore the movie, far more than I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the book, since it gave me a new view into the tale of Sophie and Howl, filled in Grand Canyons' worth of holes that the movie left out. I understand now the reasoning for the movie (and other books-turned-movies) cutting out so much and sticking to the main plot, removing all the necessary filler and side tangents that eventually brought us back to the main plot. But just like the much love (and much criticized) Harry Potter movies/books, the movie would be very long and if not unbearably sluggish, if they kept everything from the books.

I recommend watching the movie first, then reading the book. For some reason, when I did it that way, I found it easier for me to keep the two versions separate. I still found myself comparing while I was reading: "That wasn't in the movie... WTH? That wasn't in the movie... that part is different from the movie..." But that's a natural thing to do; it could have been much worse and probably ruined the movie for me if I did the reverse.
On my scale of 1 (literary hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss), I give the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle a strong 8. The book version I rate at a 6. It was a good tale, but I still prefer the movie version. Sorry, all you purists out there. Both are strong tales and worthy of one's time and adoration.