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Fans of Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle may or may not be aware that the anime film is based on a book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones. But even if they are, they still might not be aware of how different the book and its anime adaptation really are.
Some details are changed for stylistic reasons, but other aspects had to be changed because books and film are two different mediums, and things simply get lost in translation. For example, the book has a few characters that didn’t make it into the movie, or in other circumstances, two different characters were combined into one to streamline the plot.
10 Different: Fairy Tales Are A Bit More Of A Theme
In the original book, characters seem to be aware that they’re living in a fairy tale and assume the classic tropes applied to them, like the youngest child being the most successful, are true and set in stone. Sophie initially feels cheated by destiny, as she’s both the eldest daughter and her youngest sister is her stepmother’s daughter, meaning she’s destined to fulfill the role of a wicked stepsister. Of course, the course of the story shows that this isn’t necessarily true.
This is heavily downplayed in the anime adaptation, where the only hint that Sophie is a stepchild is that her mother and sister look more like each other than they do her. It doesn’t help that her sisters were conflated into a single character.
9 Same: There Are A Few Shout-Outs To The Wizard Of Oz
While most of the references to other popular works of fantasy got cut in the anime adaptation, one running joke present in the book did still appear in the film: quite a few characters are shout-outs to The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
There’s a wicked witch, dubbed the “Witch of the Waste,” no less, a scarecrow, a dog, and the title character is even a wizard, one who has a similar origin to Baum’s Wizard in the book.
8 Different: The Witch Was Of Waste Was Supernaturally Young
In the original book, the Witch of the Waste is described as quite beautiful and elegant, kept eternally young thanks to a deal with a fire demon. Her obsession with waste partially comes from seeing herself as a beautiful flower amidst the waste of the world.
While the anime kept that elegance and the Witch herself still has something of a pretty face, she was instead portrayed as a hag, seemingly based on Ursula from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which gets exaggerated when she casts a spell. Added to this, she’s ultimately stripped of her magic, rendering her an old crone, something of a karmic punishment for her curse on Sophie.
7 Same: Switching Up Sophie’s Sisters Is Somewhat Ironic
Sophie is the eldest of three sisters in the book with a younger sister, Lettie, and a younger half-sister, Martha, who was born after Sophie’s father remarried. As mentioned, Lettie and Martha don’t like the fates they’ve been given in the fairy tale setting and decide to switch places.
This was somewhat ironic, as the film ended up combining them into a single character. Sophie’s sister is named Lettie but appears to be her stepmother’s daughter, making her and Sophie stepsisters.
6 Different: Howl Was From Wales — In The Real World
As mentioned, likely as a reference to the titular Wizard of Oz, Howl isn’t originally from the fantasy land the story takes place in. In fact, he is ultimately revealed to be from real-world Wales in the 1970s.
Sophie notices the differences between the real world and her world, but takes the modern technology and customs in stride, clearly expecting unusual circumstances from the world Howl comes from. This idea was more or less dropped from the film version, though.
5 Same: Howl And Sophie Meet Each Other On The Street
Fans who have only seen the anime film but are aware that the story is based off of a book might assume that the “meet cute” between Sophie and Howl on the street was made up for the film and that she originally first meets him after entering his moving castle.
This scene does indeed appear in the original book, but the circumstances are different. In the book, it was around the time of the May Day festival. In the film, a war is going on and Howl saves Sophie from being harassed by soldiers.
4 Different: The Prince’s Situation Was A Lot More Complicated
In the anime, Sophie’s scarecrow friend Turnip-Head ultimately turns out to be an enchanted prince who was previously mentioned as a missing person earlier in the story.
His fate is a bit more macabre in the original book: the Witch of the Waste attempts to create a perfect man using his body parts and wants Howl’s head to complete her plan. He’s eventually turned into a dog and ultimately restored by Howl. A scarecrow character does appear in the book, but is a separate character from the prince.
3 Same: Sophie Keeps Going Back And Forth With Her Curse
The Witch of the Waste curses Sophie into an old woman in both versions of the story, but she seems to occasionally regain her lost youth at random intervals. The circumstances are somewhat different between the book and its adaptation.
In the book, Sophie has supernatural powers herself and has been unknowingly affecting the curse. She is ultimately restored to normal at the end of the book, highlighted by her hair regaining its previous color. The film is much more ambiguous about how the curse works. For example, Sophie’s stepmother doesn’t seem to notice her stepdaughter has been aged decades overnight.
2 Different: The Witch Of The Waste Meets Another Fate
In the anime, the Witch of the Waste is stripped of her powers, reduced to an old crone, and is more or less taken in by the little family made up of the main characters as a grandmother-like figure. She even proves noble enough to return Howl’s heart.
In the original book, she remains a much more sinister, murderous figure, and she is ultimately destroyed by Howl towards the end of the story.
1 Same: Howl’s Hair Keeps Changing Color
Anime is known for characters with unusual hair, whether it’s the color or the style. A viewer could be forgiven for thinking the film came up with Howl’s changing hair colors, an idea that seems somewhat redundant since Sophie goes through a similar issue.
But this also appeared in the original book. In both versions, Howl is described as blond when he first meets Sophie. Said to be naturally mud-colored, Sophie’s machinations accidentally cause Howl’s hair to become a pinkish ginger color, much to the wizard’s dismay.
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