Soldiers attack each other with weapons.

A bombed ship is towed into the harbour while sailors scurry towards land.

Some cities are bombed and others are shown on fire.

The movie is set during a war and there are many scenes of airships dropping bombs and bombs exploding.

Youth beauty the power of love and compassion pacifism war fantasy magic Violence Sophie is driven to free them all from the curses and spells that bind them all together. He enlists her help, asking her to speak to the king’s adviser on his behalf.Īs the war intensifies and bombs start dropping on Sophie’s town, Howl does his best to protect them all. Sophie finds herself falling in love with the mysterious Howl. She starts to learn all about Howl – how he became a wizard, how he transforms into a giant bird, and how he has been summoned by the king to fight in the war.

In the meantime, she nominates herself as Howl’s cleaning lady.

Sophie lets herself into the castle uninvited and makes a pact with Calcifer – she promises to help him escape from Howl if he helps break the curse on her. This is where the wizard Howl lives, along with his apprentice Markl (voice of Josh Hutcherson) and a comical fire demon called Calcifer (voice of Billy Crystal), who’s spellbound to stay in the castle and keep it moving and warm. It leads her to the infamous Howl’s Moving Castle, a large, surreal, steam-punk-style vehicle that roams the land on large mechanical chicken legs. While Sophie roams the countryside, she comes across a friendly scarecrow. In horror, Sophie leaves her town in search of someone to help her break the curse and return her youth to her. The same evening, as she returns to her hat shop, Sophie encounters the Witch of the Waste (voice of Lauren Bacall), who casts a spell on her, turning her into an old crone. It turns out that the young man is Howl, a notorious wizard (voice of Christian Bale). One day, as Sophie is harassed on the street by some thuggish young soldiers, an elusive and attractive young man interrupts and leads her away to safety. She believes she’s plain and not worthy of attention, unlike her more glamorous sister, Lettie. Sophie (voiced as a young girl by Emily Mortimer and as an old woman by Jean Simmons) is an earnest and kind teenage girl working in a hat store. The movie is set loosely in the first half of the 19th century in a European town that’s at war with a neighbouring kingdom. Howl’s Moving Castle is a Studio Ghibli animation, released in 2004 and based on the book of the same name by British author Dianna Wynne Jones.

Howls moving castle movie