The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe: Howl’s Moving Castle

The Laws of Physics in Howl’s Moving Castle

                Howl’s Moving Castle was released in the year of 2004 in Japan. Written and directed by the world-renowned Hayao Miyazaki, the animated film grossed 231.7 million dollars worldwide. This intriguing story is based in a world with wizardry and spells set in the midst of a pointless and gruesome war. The main character, Sophie, works in her father’s hat shop and is depicted as a plain girl with not much self-esteem, who just wants to be beautiful. While walking to her sister’s bakery one day, Sophie meets a wizard named Howl who saves her from a couple of soldiers trying to make a move on her. Sophie is immediately charmed and he whisks her away and flies through the air and drops her off at the bakery. Later after Sophie arrived back at her hat shop, the Wicked Witch of the Waste enters the shop and places a spell on Sophie that makes her physically appear as old as she feels emotionally. Sophie then leaves her home in order to try and break the spell placed upon her. Through her journey, Sophie meets demons, sorcerers, and magical things, all which seem to defy the physics of real-world. Miyazaki creates this fictional world, bending and altering the laws of physics as we know it, in order to create a magical world where the laws of time and space and basic physics are bent, inanimate objects are given life, transformations take place, all the while maintaining a believable story.

One of the most obvious deviations from the physics of the real-world was the bending of time and space and basic physics.  Right from the beginning, Howl and Sophie run through the air as if they were walking on the pavement with no aid whatsoever. People cannot fly on their own, so Miyazkai creates the illusion that they can fly with the help of Howl’s magic. Later, once Sophie appears to be an elderly woman, she discovers Howl’s magical front door to his castle. In frame 48242, Sophie realizes that upon the switch of a button, the door will allow the user to basically teleport to different locations (in the movie’s case, different cities). To have such a door in the real-world would be impossible. The entire inside of the house seems to not move, however, the door to the outside is changed. Later in the film when the Wicked Witch of the Waste, a dog, and a scarecrow move in with Howl and Sophie, Howl expands the Castle and creates a new portal by drawing a figure on the floor and utilizing his magic. The walls change shape and new rooms and furniture are created out of thin air. The front door also leads them to different places than it did earlier in the film. Also, later in the film, Sophie is able to time-travel through the front door to see into Howl’s past as to how Calcifer took Howl’s heart. Time traveling is something that is impossible in reality, however, in this movie, it just goes along with the magic. Throughout the Movie, one will also notice a common animation characteristic—inanimate objects are given life and personified. Early on, Sophie meets a scarecrow, who she names “Turnip-Head” who has the ability to stand on his own, hop, follow directions and more. For instance, she tells Turnip-Head to find her a place to stay; the Turnip-Head hopped off and brought her to Howl’s castle. Inside of Howl’s castle, Sophie meets a fire demon named Calcifer. Calcifer has the ability to move, grab, eat, speak, and more. He tells Sophie that he and Howl have a spell cast upon them and he also controls the movement of the castle. The way inanimate objects are allowed to be portrayed as living beings seems plausible in combination with the magical world that is portrayed in the film. For example, it is impossible for fires to speak, grab things, eat, or have a personality. However, since it is stated in the film that Calcifer is a fire demon, he is able to do these things. In the movie when Sophie was cleaning the castle, Calcifer was picked up and almost smothered with ashes turning a blue color to indicate that he was dying. However, Howl blew on Calcifer and brought him back to life. The frames between 60670 and 612300 show Calcifer dying and turning into a blue, cold flame. Then frame 62242 shows Howl blowing life back into Calcifer.  Howl’s castle is also a very special object in the film, as it is named within the title. Howl’s castle walks on four legs, powered by Calcifer. Just looking at the castle move is incredible. The castle is comprised of chimneys, metal, parts of a house, and more. It also resembles a type of an animal with a face, mouth, tongue, legs, and tail. In real-life this castle would be impossible to move, or even stand on its four legs which are far too small to bear the weight of the entire castle. However, the imagination runs wild in the film allowing viewers to imagine a small fire demon the size of a fist is moving a castle the size of a skyscraper. At the end of the film in frame 206970, Howl’s humongous castle is seen flying away into the distance. This is allowed to happen in the movie because it is just assumed that magic is allowing the castle to fly. The bending of the basic physics principles allows viewers to start to believe that this world is different from reality. This also may allow viewers to be more accepting of the new physics laws introduced in the film. In the film, Sophie never seems too terribly surprised at these personified objects, as it is supposed to be a real thing in that fictional world.

Another component which adds to the magical qualities of this film is the transformations the characters undergo. As stated earlier, Sophie is transformed from a young adult into a 90-year-old woman within seconds of the Wicked Witch of the Waste’s spell. Throughout the movie she also seems to get younger in appearance as she gains more self-confidence and feels younger inside.  But, as soon as she begins to doubt herself, she reverts back to her older appearance. In the movie, viewers also witness Howl transform into a bird in order to fight in the war. Also, Howl’s hair changes color because of his magic. It instantly went from blonde to orange to black within seconds because of his mood. Howl also undergoes more transformation. For instance, in frame 74136 Howl arrives back home and starts to revert his transformation and goes back to his human form. It appears painful and it slowly happens. This is more feasible since physical changes in the real-world take time to occur, however, the same type of transformation cannot be achieved in reality. If this were to happen in the real-world, our body would have to change the tissues in our body, and stretch or shrink. A lot of things would have to happen physiologically, and the drastic change achieved in the film is not something that could truly happen, however, it is very intriguing to watch.  Because, the transformation is so slow and painful, it makes Howl seem more real. In another example the end of the movie, Sophie kisses Turnip-Head and thanks him for all his help along her journey and he instantly transforms into a prince. This does not happen and could not happen in real-life and only occurs in fantasy worlds. His entire body shape changed.

In Howl’s Moving Castle there are a lot of magical and imagined occurrences, however, they are detailed in such a way that imagination allows viewers to watch the movie and just be fascinated by this new world. Even though there were numerous physic components that are not physically able to occur in reality, the film still seems believable because a consistency is maintained.  Some laws of time and space and basic physic principles are abandoned and are combined with realistic elements to create an animate film that leaves people wanting more. Contributing to the changed physics of this new world, the inanimate object which were given life  and the transformations that took place all cohesively work together in order to create a fantastic story. The key to changing the physics in a film and still keeping the film believable is to maintain the new laws of physics that is depicted in the movie. Once the physics are changed, they must remain constant throughout the movie; otherwise the audience will be thrown and confused. Although, many of the elements in this animated film are not feasible, it all seems plausible when put together in one film. The laws of physics are altered all the time within the animated film and film industry. This fulfills audience’s craving to see things that are not possible in our world, today.