It's the type of film that, if I hadn't read the book first, I think I would have enjoyed it just fine. Because I did read the book first, the first half of my viewing was punctuated by "OH MY GAWD WTF IS THIS?!?!" and "THAT'S SO FRIKKIN' STUPID!" the second half was punctuated by me falling asleep repeatedly, rewinding to the last point I remembered, and watching again.
Now that I've finished it I recognize that the book and it's adaption had fundamentally different goals in their storytelling. And to accomplish that different goal, the movie had to change pretty much everything about the story. A few of the characters are still there, some of them even have the same names...oh and there is still a moving castle
- The Differences
But despite the collage-style character building and the streamlined plot, I think the biggest difference between the book and the movie is that they're trying to convey a different moral or message to their audience:The moral of the movie is that war is destructive, and people are selfish and simple.
The moral of the book is that people are complicated: there is never just one reason that a character does a thing, usually it's a compilation of a million different issues that make them act the way they do. It also focuses on the importance of taking a stand for (or against) something, and the ways people become motivated enough to do that.
TO THAT END they changed the personalities of the main characters entirely:
Movie!Howl is an Edward Cullen knock-off. He's so practically perfect in every way that when they do choose to include one scene verbatim straight out of the book it seems so jarringly out of character for Movie!Howl to say:
Unfortunately, we don't really get a chance to get to know Movie!Sophie much before she gets cursed. She does seem rather more assertive in her atmosphere in the shop than she does on the street, and her sister encourages her to persue what she wants in life. But after she's cursed she basically becomes generic lovesick girl #3, and it's kind of the end of her development as a character.
Book!Sophie is superstitious and insecure; clever but too impulsive and flighty to do anything of real meaning with her talents. The curse liberates her not because she gets to spend time with the resident hot wizard, but because it frees her from the expectations she has about her own life. For the first time, she gets to explore what she's interested in outside of what her family wants her to do.
Book!Howl...Oh, what can I say about Book!Howl?
You remember those guys at the start of the movie who were hitting on Sophie and making her feel all uncomfortable? And then Howl comes and bees a perfect gentleman and makes them leave her alone? Well, in the book, those guys were Howl. Except once he realized his advances were making her feel uncomfortable he made a gracious exit and left her alone of his own accord. Book!Howl is NOT a gentleman, but he's not cruel either. If Sophie is thoughtless (acts on gut feelings and doesn't think things through), Howl is heartless (in the Peter Pan sense) he may not be intentionally hurtful, but he is very self-centered and conceited.
So both the main characters have some really ingrained personality flaws to work though, independent of the external influences.
For Movie!Howl, the external stressor is that he's been drafted as a mage to war, and he doesn't want to go, because he's afraid that using too much of his magic will dehumanize him in some way.
For Movie!Sophie...IDK, she mentions trying to get rid of the curse, like, once or twice. She really doesn't do much in the way of investigating how she's gonna accomplish that.
Needless to say, Book!Sophie spends a lot more time and energy focused on that end. Howl's exploits are more likely to get in the way of her aim than to provide a romantic distraction (at least for the first 3/4 of the book).
As for Book!Howl...he never has do deal with a draft notice at all, because THERE IS NO WAR!! What there is is a lost General Justin: the king's brother and right-hand man, who's been kidnapped and the King needs him back as adviser to see if he SHOULD go to war. Howl's motivation for not wanting to get involved is multifaceted: 1) it may put him in danger, 2) It's not convenient 3) It may start a war, 4) it may put him in the path of his ex girlfriend. He's weighing that against heroism, the straight up saving of a good person who needs his help.
To those ends, we meet a host of wacky and wild people, most of whom are good-natured and all of whom are dealing with their own internal and external conflicts. The way the book weaves these stories in and out of Sophie's narrative is actually quite masterful. The movie, understandably, is limited in how extensively it can portray supporting characters:
So in the movie, Sophie only gets one sister (and she doesn't have much to do with the story), her step mom is now her regular mom (and is an even bigger duchebag than her step mom would have been), Michael is a little kid and probably not her future brother-in-law, Calcifer is from The Bronx, The Witch of the Wastes is actually quite nice once you get to know her, Percival/Gaston is a regular dog named Heen, The scarecrow is actually a transformed Prince Justin (*eyeroll*), Benjamin Sulliman, Ms. Angorian, and Mrs Pentstemmon are all the same person ("Madame Sulliman" and they're pretty evil for some reason, but they get away with it anyway so yay for them I guess....), Howl's family does not make an appearance...although he does mention that he had an uncle who was also a wizard.
The biggest aspect I regret wasn't added to the movie is Mrs Penstemmon. It really bugs me that they would make someone like that, a genuinely decent, good-hearted and concerned mentor...into the scheming and manipulative antagonist.
Boo :(
- The Similarites
One of the things that they do portray pretty accurately is the magic aspect. Sorcerers in this fantasy setting use magic by writing spells or by setting up contracts with magical beings called Fire Demons. Fire Demons are not necessarily evil, but they don't really have a concept of morality except for what behavior is delineated in a contract. There is kind of a life cycle for the fire demon, and a timeline for what happens after it binds with a human via a contract. I think that was presented pretty well in the movie visually (even though no one turns into a bird-thing). In the book, though, the most severe/progressive case isn't with Howl himself, but another Sorcerer and most of the time when we see this person we don't realize what's going on with them because they look like a regular person.The story also takes place in the same country as the book, with vaguely the same landmarks and political structure. The book also partly takes place in the real world as a parallel dimension to the fantasy one (and also is where two of the wizards come from). It's actually a really interesting aspect I wish they could have worked it in to the movie.
Conclusion:
Overall, this experience left me flustered. I don't really mind that they changed the characters for the movie adaption. What does bug me is that people who see this movie and don't read the book are going to assume that that is what those characters are like.
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