Narrative Research Project: metamorphosis research

Taking notes while watching 'Howls Moving Castle':
The main character, Sophie, is pictured in the beginning of the film as a hardworking young girl. There is a definite contrast between her and her more glamorous and outgoing peers, as she won't partake in their discussions and prefers to go out alone. One thing that stands out about her design is that she has much fuller (is that the right word?) eyebrows than is normal on a female anime character. I think this is to further draw a line between her and other females, as thinner eyebrows are usually considered prettier on a girl. Soon, we meet her sister, again, pictured with make up and lipstick and thinner eyebrows, as one of the 'prettier' girls. Their dialogue reveals that even Sophie doesn't think much of her own looks.

When she is cursed to turn into an old lady, she remarks that 'her clothes finally suit her', again making her out as the outcast compared to the fashion of others. She also remarks that 'you get more cunning with age'. At this point, by her actions, mannerisms and looks, you'd never guess she was really a young girl. She seems to change back to normal at night, or when she gets excited.

After a while, there is a very gradual change in her character design. First, her hunch disappears. Second, the lines on her face disappear. Around the middle of the film, she starts looking like her younger self, only with white hair. It seems like this is because she is feeling more and more at home with Howl and her new friends, but the lines on her face return once she remembers how self-conscious she is about her own beauty. In this instance, getting older seems like a defence mechanism, because the older she gets, the less she cares about her looks.

By the end of the movie, she is never completely returned to her original state, but she becomes an attractive young white-haired girl.

Metamorphosis essay plan:

What is the purpose of transformation in Howl’s Moving Castle?


Introduction: introduce movie and overview of essay

Thesis: Transformation creates a conflict that brings the characters together and serves as a catalyst for character development

Sophie is: hardworking, introverted, self-conscious about her looks, separates herself from all the ‘pretty’ girls.

Noteworthy design choices: dull clothes, no make-up, much fuller eyebrows than is normal on anime girls. Clear design contrasts with other girls in the film.

There was no moral or lesson to be learnt from being transformed into an old lady, the witch simply cursed Sophie because she was accidentally associated with a person the witch hated.

The transformation into an old lady is sudden and unseen, but the transformation back happens slowly, and never quite completed.

She changes back to normal on two occasions:

• At night, and when she gets excitedly happy.
• Once when she was almost normal, she became old again, as if as a defence mechanism once she started to remember how self-conscious she was about her looks. In her older state, she didn’t care about her looks.

In summary, Sophie’s transformation served several purposes:

The archetypal herald, the force that causes Sophie to leave her home in search for a way to change back. She is able to slip away without anybody noticing because nobody recognises her.

She’s too quiet to easily read her emotions, so the rate of her transformation expresses when she is unusually happy or sad. When she’s extremely excited, she seems to get younger, when she’s less happy, she sometimes seems to get older.

"Sophie's Curse:

Some people argue that the power of love was what broke the curse however that theory does not explain why Sophie's age changes frequently throughout the movie.

One theory is that the curse is heavily affected by Sophie's own confidence and emotions. In the beginning, she sounds like a 90-year-old grandmother as her mother put it and she acts as if she gave up on her own life. But as she finds some purpose cleaning the castle, she becomes slightly younger. When she pointed out Howl's good qualities to Suliman, she was assertive and forward with her own thoughts. This caused her to go back to her own age. Later when she is introduced to Howl's secret flower field she is full of joy and youth but when doubt began to cloud her mind and she denied herself from being pretty, she went back to being an old woman.

There are other cases where what she did affected her age in the movie. When she slept however, she was back to her normal self. At the end of the movie, Sophie was ready to be assertive and move forward with her life instead of giving up which was probably what broke the curse.

Another theory says that the curse was weakened and started frequently changing Sophie's age until it could only change Sophie's hair colour when the Witch of the Waste lost all of her powers. And stating that when she was seen the first time sleeping, Howl must have known of her curse and wanted to see her true youth, and that the second time was only a dream.

It is also possible that the spell weakens if Sophie is not focusing very much on it, whether actively or unconsciously. For example, Sophie was probably not dreaming about being old, so she returned to her proper age in sleep. Another example could be her visit to Suliman, since she would then be thinking about Howl rather than herself."

(http://howlscastle.wikia.com/wiki/Sophie_Hatter, 14/02/16)


"The story centres on a shy young hatter named Sophie who is pretty but doesn’t think herself so. One afternoon, she is cornered by guards on her way to meet her sister, and she encounters the powerful wizard Howl who takes her up into the sky to get away from the guards. Afterward, the Witch of the Waste, who is hopelessly in love with the aloof and self-absorbed Howl, comes into the hat shop who curses poor Sophie to be a 90 year old woman who cannot speak of her curse to anyone. Sophie decides to leave town and seek a cure for the curse on her own, eventually ending up in the Wastes. She meets a living scarecrow, another cursed individual, who escorts her to Howl’s castle, which looks rather piecemeal and walks around on mechanical chicken legs. Getting inside, Sophie meets Calcifer, the fire demon who Howl has bound to the castle and who powers the whole thing, and Markl, Howl’s young apprentice. Through cleverness, Sophie sets herself up as the castle’s new maid.

Howl proves himself to be a very strange master. He comes and goes at random, overusing his magic at times like a junkie on a bender, and he’s impossibly vain and considers himself the most beautiful man alive. Despite all these traits, Sophie can tell he’s basically a good-hearted person who is afraid to engage in the world and thus hides from it, despite his immense power. A war is brewing between two neighbouring countries, and two of Howl’s magician aliases get summoned to join the kingdom in the war effort. Howl has made a pact to show himself, but he’s afraid to do so, so he sends Sophie in his place, posing as his elderly mother. On the way, Sophie meets the Witch of the Waste who has also been summoned. They both are called before the King’s royal magic adviser Madame Suliman, who immediately knows Sophie isn’t Howl’s mother, and is in fact in love with him, and who makes the Witch of the Waste as old and ugly as she really is, seemingly just for fun. Howl arrives and says he wants nothing to do with the war, but that doesn’t sit well with Suliman, who wants Howl’s power. The Witch of the Waste joins Howl and Sophie as they make their escape and begin their life on the run from the war and its factions of airships."
(http://nerdist.com/miyazaki-masterclass-howls-moving-castle/, 14/02/16)


"Sophie

The character that undergoes the most number of changes over the course of the film is Sophie. She begins the film as a young woman with long brown hair. Quickly into the film Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste and we then see her portrayed as a very old woman with heavy wrinkles and a hunch in her back. After this curse has been set Sophie can be seen in a number of ways: a young girl with brown hair, an older woman perhaps 20 to 30 years younger than what is seen in the first transformation with far fewer wrinkles and much better posture, a young woman much like she first appeared but with grey or silver hair, as well as with short hair when her long locks are cut off by Calcifer. Some may say that Sophie appears looking younger than how she did when the film begins. These different appearances can be seen in the stills below. But what do these different transformations mean in association to the film’s story? On the basic level the ways in which we see Sophie is a representation of how she sees herself throughout the film. The fluctuations in her outward appearance come from fluctuations in her self-esteem and attitude. Sophie does not see herself as beautiful or important when the film begins. This is reflected with her change into the very old woman directly after the Witch of Waste casts her curse. It is times when Sophie feels love, courage, pride, and true happiness that she lets her guard down and becomes her true self. These are the times where she is portrayed as a younger, beautiful woman or even girl.

Howl

Howl and Sophie are related in that they both are unhappy with the way they look. While Sophie’s character basically accepts the fact that she thinks she is not beautiful, Howl does not. Howl uses magic and potions to keep his appearance in the exact way he approves of. He is horrified when "grandma" Sophie cleans his bathroom and the potions end up turning his hair from a golden colour to a deep black. Interestingly enough, Howl can see Sophie’s true beauty even through the mask of an old woman and Sophie accepts and loves Howl regardless of his hair colour and mysterious behaviour. Howl also undergoes a physical metamorphosis into the large black bird. This façade is terrifying, intimidating but also somewhat beautiful and mysterious. These words seem to fit the description of Howl himself as a character. His alter-ego is, in a sense, an extension of who he really is, even though he may not particularly agree with this description. When Howl goes to a dark place (in his life) and feels lost and hopeless the bird creature he becomes looks more frightening and even slightly sickly. When Howl has gained confidence and feels courageous, rushing to save Sophie when the war has broken out in the streets, his bird self appears more heroic, proud, and healthy. Calcifer warns Howl that if he doesn't stop changing into his bird form it could be dangerous and he could lose the ability to appear as he really is in human form. The longer he stays in the bird form the greater the chances are that he will forget who he truly is and be imprisoned in the bird form. This result is seen in some wizards when Howl visits the "black portal." The importance of knowing yourself and who you truly are, as well as never losing hold of that knowledge is a theme Miyazaki seems to be implementing through this portion of the film.

Witch of the Waste

Another character that undergoes a physical transformation is the Witch of the Waste. She changes from a tall, middle aged, stout woman to a shorter, still stout elderly woman when her magic is taken from her. While the transformation comes from her magic being revoked her appearance still echoes the theme Miyazaki has laid out in the film of the reflection of how one feels and who one is can be seen in their outward appearance. The Witch of the Waste surely feels diminished and lost after being stripped of her power. She is shown as an old woman with dementia-like tendencies. Her evil ways are stripped with her powers. This plays up her being "lost" in this new world without the use of her magic. She no longer feels the need to be rude without the force of her magic. Or perhaps she has forgotten her evil ways in her old age? A piece of her old self shows through when she is tempted with the presence of Howl’s heart at her grasp. This could be explained by way of this obsession with Howl being so deep rooted that the temptation of taking his heart was instinctual rather than a conscious effort to be wicked.

Calcifer

Calcifer undergoes a change from his fire demon appearance to the look of himself as a fallen star near the end of the film. This metamorphosis is present in the film as a story or narrative device but it is unclear how his transformation plays into the theme Miyazaki plays with throughout the film that the outer look of a character is a reflection of their inner feelings and attitude.

Turnip Head

As a final stretch it should be noted that the prince or "turnip head" also undergoes an appearance transformation. While his story is not central to the story of the film, not fully discussed, viewers should be aware that his change constitutes another metamorphosis that occurs in the film."
(http://film110.pbworks.com/w/page/12610275/Physical%20Metamorphosis%20in%20Howl%27s%20Moving%20Castle, 14/02/16)


"Oh, what a pleasure to experience another animated masterwork by Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese director who also was behind the 2002 Academy Award winning animated film Spirited Away. His films always have a spiritual perspective. In this one, based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, there is no simplistic division of the world into good guys and bad guys, no "us" versus "them" battles in which we cheer for the heroes and hiss when the villains appear on the screen. Humans, demons, sorcerers, and witches all demonstrate moments of goodness, selfishness, and folly. For this achievement alone, Miyazaki deserves to be commended for advancing the cause of a mystical appreciation of our connections with all others, no matter how strange or unappealing they seem at first. No one can be cast out of our hearts. For example, in one of the most daring developments in the story, the elderly Sophie volunteers to look after the vanquished Witch of the Waste, the same one who put her under a spell.

A second admirable motif in this drama is that being old is not a terrible and unappealing fate. This is almost never seen in films made in the West where youth is worshipped and elders are treated as invisible men and women. After Sophie is transformed into an old woman, she is at first stunned by this staggering change in her appearance. But then she learns to relax into her new persona. This Sophie is an improved version of the youngster, who was shy, frightened of challenges, and lacking in both energy and self-confidence. Sophie, the elder, embarks on an adventure that takes her into a world far beyond anything she could have imagined before. Working as Howl's housekeeper, she has more energy and fulfilment than ever. Sophie the elder is not afraid to adapt to all the changes in her life nor does she have any doubts about speaking her mind. Miyazaki shows that this character's face is young when she sleeps but while she is working to save Howl, hers is a face of embodied wisdom, showing the marks of experience. Howl's Moving Castle is probably the first animated feature ever to let a crone carry the day with the ardour of her love and caring spirit.

A third theme of Howl's Moving Castle is its anti-war message and its affirmation of the heart. The wizard shows Sophie an old mill house where he spent much of his childhood. This beautiful rustic setting replete with a glorious lake is in stark contrast to the fast-paced city where Sophie lives. There the dark black clouds of smoke from the trains fill the air with pollution. But the most toxic thing of all is war itself with destructive battles going on in the air and on the land. Howl is transformed into a great birdlike warrior as he tries to put an end to conflict.

Both Howl and Sophie learn a lesson that has been stated well by the great Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa: "Real fearlessness is the product of our tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your raw and beautiful heart." Howl's Moving Castle is one of the best films of the year."
(http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/9851/howls-moving-castle, 14/02/16)