Howl's Moving Castle

Finished reading Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle to Calista last night. It was an interesting book. Calista was engrossed, although she utterly missed the fact that Sophie had a kind of innate ability to talk magic into things until right at the end. And the seven-league boots were a great deal of fun.

Comparing the novel and the movie is an interesting exercise in its own right. The two roughly parallel each other up to around the halfway point. Beyond that, they diverge considerably. In Jones' story, the Witch of the Waste has a fire demon familiar as well, an evil one that is manipulating events to gain a new host as the Witch is very old and her usefulness is fading. The Witch herself is cavalier and cruel to no end, and has placed a complex curse over Howl. Miyazaki ignores almost all of this in his film. Instead, he molds the story to his hot-button issues. The ongoing war in the film is entirely his invention. Madam Suliman in the film is Wizard Suliman in the book, who is dead for most of the story--and a radically different character beyond those two details. The biggest departure Miyazaki makes from the book deals with the Witch of the Waste's redemption. In the book, there simply isn't any for the evil sorceress. But looking at Miyazaki's body of work, it's clear that he doesn't go for that kind of storytelling, and instead molds the Witch of the Waste into an ambiguous character akin to Yubaba from Spirited Away.

I enjoy both versions, but after reading the book I can't help but think Miyazaki would've been better served by sticking closer to the plot elements of Jones' story, rather than graft characters and set pieces onto the same story he's been telling for close to a decade now.

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