10 Things That Don't Make Sense About Howl's Moving Castle (2025)

Howl's Moving Castle is a film animated by Studio Ghibli. It features stunning visuals as well as an engaging, imaginative story. Although set in a fantasy world full of magic, many viewers can relate to the main lead, Sophie, who slowly learns to be brave and love herself.

She sets out on a journey to break her curse, helping others along the way. Although this film was very enjoyable, it has many confusing elements that no amount of magic can explain away. These flaws include some of the movie's visuals, settings, and even the way the characters are used. While these parts of the film are confusing, they still don't stop Howl's Moving Castle from being one of Studio Ghibli's most iconic films.

Updated on March 16, 2024 by Jennifer Roy: Howl's Moving Castle remains one of Studio Ghibli's most popular films, but there are still elements of the film that don't make sense to many viewers. This article has been updated to fit CBR's current formatting guidelines.

10 The Train's Location Is Right Between Houses

In Sophie's hometown, there always seems to be a train traveling between houses. Many people don't want to live next to a busy road because it's too loud, but living next to a train constantly blaring its horn seems even worse. Additionally, the train is constantly spewing thick, black smoke above it. Sophie has to walk right through it when she crosses the bridge above it, but to her credit, she doesn't seem to react much to this, given that she is probably used to it.

9 Turnip Head Conveniently Has The Solution To Everything

Turnip Head is an odd character who is somehow able to find whatever he needs to in order to help Sophie. He manages to find a cane in the wastes, as well as an umbrella. He quickly locates the castle and even convinces it to follow him. As a scarecrow, Turnip Head does not utter a single word, making fans wonder how he manages to accomplish these things. When his pole snaps, he turns out perfectly fine after a kiss from Sophie, making fans conclude that his curse runs on Beauty And The Beast's logic.

8 Howl's Moving Castle Doesn't Resemble An Actual Castle

Every fan can agree that the castle in Castle In The Sky looks like a castle. The same cannot be said about Howl's castle. In the beginning of the movie, the ladies in the hat shop were rushing to the window, fawning over the pure grandeur of Howl's moving castle. However, when fans got a closer look at the castle, fans were presented with a sort of fish-like monstrosity with a few houses attached, which lumbered around on thin chicken legs and spit out black smoke. Unfortunately, it is not the most visually appealing piece of architecture.

7 Sophie Ignores Calcifer's Pleas

When aggressively cleaning the inside of the castle, Sophie rather cruelly places Calcifer in a pot, leaving him dangling precariously on a burnt chunk of wood. He continuously utters feeble pleas for her to hurry and put him back since his fire was going out. She seemed to ignore him, even after he fell to the bottom of the pot in a puff of smoke. It was a near-death experience for him, and despite learning how dangerous that was for both Calcifer and Howl, Sophie doesn't even bother to apologize.

6 Howl's Tantrum Over His Hair

Everyone has had a bad hair day. However, few people gave up on life over an easily fixable mistake. Thanks to Sophie's cleaning, Howl's potions got mixed around, leading his hair to change from blond to ginger. Howl accuses Sophie of ruining him and proceeds to throw a tantrum as his hair changes to black. He nearly extinguishes Calcifer in the midst of his tantrum, but despite his claims of hating his new hair color, he doesn't bother dying it back to blond again. While this behavior is melodramatic, the hair dye incident highlights Howl's vanity and insecurity.

5 Howl & Sophie Take In The Witch Of The Waste Who Cursed Her In The First Place

Despite The Witch Of The Waste and Suliman's dog being enemies to Howl and Sophie, they still take them in, allowing them to stay in the castle. Suliman's dog did nothing wrong, other than ask Sophie to carry him up a lot of stairs, but The Witch Of The Waste was the one who cursed Sophie in the beginning.

Sophie shows a surprising amount of hospitality, feeding her, tucking her into bed, and even giving her a hug at the end of the movie. The Witch still causes problems for the main leads, but her maliciousness completely vanished. While Sophie's treatment of the Witch may seem confusing, Sophie's kindness ultimately shows the transformative power of compassion.

4 The Dream Cave Was Overwhelming To Look At

When Sophie has a dream about Howl's return, she sees him in his monstrous form. However, viewers are easily distracted by the background choice. What was initially Howl's room full of junk became a cave full of even stranger junk. Some of the random things included in the dream cave are: giant chili peppers, dolls, a white rocking horse, and toy blocks. Although dreams tend to be strange, this kind of scenery in what is supposed to be a serious scene was a questionable and distracting choice.

3 Sophie's Mother Suddenly Appearing

Near the climax of the movie, Sophie's mother suddenly appears. She does not explain how she knew where Sophie would be, or how she recognized her daughter despite the fact that Sophie looked like an old woman. Sophie just greets her mother with open arms without questioning anything. She didn't even seem bothered or suspicious about the fact that her mother left as quickly as she came. What makes this scene even more frustrating is that Sophie's mother only appeared to betray her own daughter.

2 Sophie's Sister Disappears

The Howl's Moving Castle novel by Diane Duane handles Sophie's family better than the movie. In the film, Sophie visits her younger sister in the beginning to check up on her, but she never once mentions her again. Despite a war going on, and the fact that their town was the one getting bombed, Sophie never brings up her family or even seems to worry about them.

From the movie alone, it is impossible to tell if Sophie's mother or sister made it through the war alright, but the movie doesn't choose to bring up their fates since these characters only played minor roles.

1 The Unexplained Powers Of Sophie's Ring

When Howl gives Sophie the ring, he mentions that it would guarantee her safe return home. He didn't mention that the ring would lead her to a magical door that would take her to the past. In an odd turn of events, the ring seems to react to her tears, and allows her to figure out exactly why Howl ate Calcifer, as well as how she could save both of them. After this trip to Howl's past, the ring breaks, and Howl is waiting for her outside of the door, having somehow discerned exactly where she would be.

Howl's Moving Castle

PG

Adventure

Family

When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.

Director

Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date

June 17, 2005

Studio

Studio Ghibli

Cast

Takuya Kimura , Tatsuya Gashûin , Chieko Baisho

Writers

Hayao Miyazaki , Diana Wynne Jones

Runtime

1 Hour 59 Minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Production Company

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Mitsubishi.