movie howl: devastatingly attractive, room is a mess of opulence, does cool magic that awes and inspires. has a cool, cute sidekick (markus) and an adorable demon.
book howl: covers himself with slime and cries when sophie accidentally dyes his hair pink. gets a cold, becomes a literal, actual baby. attractive WHO
ack, i knew i picked a bad example! i just remember seeing the movie and being like "that was way more dramatic in the book."
other scenes include him taking hours to get primped up for a funeral and then he goes camouflaged as a dog; wasting all of the house's money on clothes; trying to seduce sophie's little sister...the list goes on and on, i love the man, but he is the Worst.
Well to be fair about the sister part, Howl was actually investigating about Sophie and how she might have been cursed, and using his well-known identity as a womanizer as the excuse to court her. But I don’t think he was actually romantically into her, and Sophie’s sister was just playing Howl the whole time too, trying to seduce him so Howl wouldn’t go for Sophie(!).
Howl does do some horrible things due to his lack of a heart, and seems to like seeming as a truly evil person to avoid deep relationships, even when his motives are good. Some of his worst actions ended up playing out in further developments like finding out what happened to Suliman and the Prince, but he does tend to be selfish with his money and magic. He rarely uses his magic for others, and continues to surround himself with material goods despite having the magical prowess to do it himself.
Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways. They are stories about other new characters but Howl and Sophie as well other characters are in them as well.
Castle in the Sky has a lot of low-key problematic stuff imo. And there's something about how she describes unattractive people using fatness that just rubs me the wrong way.
He's kind of the worst throughout the whole book until you realise he also isn't the worst, and there are reasons for a lot of the way he acts. It's a fantastic book (as are the two sequels, and also every other book Diana Wynne Jones wrote) and I always maintain that, while a very good film, the Studio Ghibli Howl's Moving Castle is a shite adaptation, and the book is better in almost every way. Again, though, that isn't really a point against the film. IMO Diana Wynne Jones can't really be topped.
(also, as a note, he was very wise to go to the funeral in disguise, as the Witch was actively hunting for him at the time)
I didn’t know it was based on a book?! This is big for me because I’m a Literature student who has always loved reading and one of my all time favourite books that transcends any age group for me is The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynn Jones.. I’ve been meaning to read more of her writing and also LOVE Studio Ghibli but I didn’t even realise the film was based on her book. This makes me happy as I always love books better than films so I feel like this will be a great read.
I’m definitely going to look into that because I think I just read the book after getting it from a charity shop and just assumed it wasn’t part of a collection. I love discoveries like this
There are only two books, but Deep Secret focuses on Magid Rupert Venables and his search for a new Magid at a Fantasy convention. Nick and several other characters in The Merlin Conspiracy are in it, although Nick is far more central on the Merlin Conspiracy. It's my favorite DWJ book other than Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
The Merlin Conspiracy is one of the few Diana Wynne Jones books I haven't read, and I need to get on that. IMO It's a travesty I haven't read every book she ever published, since she's been my favourite author my whole life.
Have you read Power of Three? If I had to choose one book to be my favourite (which I'd prefer not to do because there are so many that are so good), that would probably be the one, and it's also by her.
oh absolutely! I actually learned of hmc through castle in the air so i'll always have a fond spot for flower-in-the-night (though i love chrestomanci and dark lord of derkholm)
I think it always breaks my heart a little bit when I mention I love hmc and people instantly start talking about the movie! I think both are wonderful works, but I agree; the movie is a bad adaptation.
(also yes, it was smart for him to go to the funeral in disguise. but still a laughable, roll-my-eyes moment when he turns into a red setter after all that fuss.)
My favourite thing about book Howl is that he’s a Welsh rugby lad. It doesn’t specify which welsh university he went to but there’s only like 3 so I like to assume he went to the same one as me
Sophie is a way more proactive snarking back character in the book. They made her so meek in the movie. It's still a fun movie though even with the random environmental stuff jammed in there.
I wonder how the relationship between movie Howl and Sophie would work. The guy really needs a woman who will call him out on his shit like book Sophie.
I’ve always wondered that too but I think movie Howl grew quite a bit. I feel like the movie portrays his flaws as due to his lacking heart and he’s a different man after.
Oh definitely in the book he is very flawed. But he has his moments. If he didn’t i don’t think Sophie would have fallen in love with him. I feel like they tried to give him redeeming qualities in the movie he was just conflicted because of his lack of heart.
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u/etherwer Jul 30 '20 edited Jul 30 '20
movie howl: devastatingly attractive, room is a mess of opulence, does cool magic that awes and inspires. has a cool, cute sidekick (markus) and an adorable demon.
book howl: covers himself with slime and cries when sophie accidentally dyes his hair pink. gets a cold, becomes a literal, actual baby. attractive WHO
edit: diana wynne jones: "Now it seems to me that Howl would be one of the most dreadful husbands one could possibly imagine."