Wizard Howl’s home is pretty unique. It’s a big, moving castle, but it doesn’t look like a normal castle at all. Instead, it’s made up of all sorts of weird stuff, kind of like a bunch of junk piled together, and it even looks a bit a living creature.
This castle isn’t just sitting still somewhere. Nope, it moves around the wasteland, and it’s got these four legs that look like bird legs, helping it shuffle from place to place.
If you’re lucky enough to find the castle, you might see a special door called the Howl Door. It’s got this magical switch next to it that can take you to different places depending on what color you pick. Green might take you to the wastelands, blue to Porthaven, red to Kingsbury, and black to a battlefield. Later on, they change it up, adding yellow for Sophie’s hometown and pink for Howl’s secret garden.
Inside, there’s a fire demon named Calcifer who powers the whole place. He makes sure the castle can walk, light up, cook food, and even provide hot water for baths. He’s pretty important because without him, the whole castle would fall apart.
Speaking of falling apart, towards the end of the story, there’s a big disaster. Sophie and the Witch of the Waste mess with Calcifer, and the whole castle collapses. But don’t worry, they manage to rebuild it into something even crazier – a flying castle!
Hayao miyazaki got inspired by the way weaving machines move when they created the castle’s animation. He wanted it to sound heavy and creaky, like it was made of wood, not metal. So, they used the sounds of wood rubbing together to make it seem real. It took them a few months to get the movement and sound just right, but it turned out pretty cool in the end.
