Sophie meets Suliman, the king's head sorceress, and also the Witch of the Waste, whom Suliman punishes by draining all of her power and reverting her to her true age, that of a harmless old woman. Before leaving, he gives Sophie a charmed ring that leads her to Calcifer and guarantees her safety. However, Howl decides to send Sophie to the King (under the pretense of being his mother) to tell him that Howl is too much of a coward to fight. The King summons Howl to fight in the war. Meanwhile, Sophie's nation is caught up in a war with a neighboring kingdom, which is searching for its missing prince. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that she has 'hired herself' as a cleaning lady. Calcifer makes a deal with Sophie, agreeing to break her curse if she breaks his link with Howl. She subsequently meets Howl's young apprentice Markl and a fire demon named Calcifer, the source of the castle's magic and movement. He leads her to Howl's moving castle where she enters without invitation. She meets a living scarecrow, whom she calls 'Turnip Head'. Seeking to break the curse, Sophie leaves home and sets off through the countryside. Upon returning home, she meets the Witch of the Waste, who transforms her into a ninety-year-old woman. Sophie, a young milliner and eldest of three sisters, encounters a wizard named Howl on her way to visit her sister Lettie. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards, but lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in 2006, and won several other awards, including four Tokyo Anime Awards and a Nebula Award for Best Script. The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise toward its visuals and Miyazaki's presentation of the themes. It went on to gross $190 million in Japan and $236 million worldwide, making it one of the most commercially successful Japanese films in history. Howl's Moving Castle had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 5 September 2004, and was theatrically released in Japan on 20 November 2004. In 2013, Miyazaki said Howl's Moving Castle was his favorite creation, explaining 'I wanted to convey the message that life is worth living, and I don't think that's changed.' The film is thematically significantly different from the novel while the novel focuses on challenging class and gender norms, the film focuses on love, personal loyalty and the destructive effects of war.

The film contains feminist elements as well, and carries messages about the value of compassion. It also explores the theme of old age, depicting age positively as something which grants the protagonist freedom. Miyazaki stated that he 'had a great deal of rage' about the Iraq war, which led him to make a film which he felt would be poorly received in the United States. Influenced by Miyazaki's opposition to the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003, the film contains strong anti-war themes. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king. It tells the story of a young, content milliner named Sophie who is turned into an old woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. The film is set in a fictional kingdom where both magic and early twentieth-century technology are prevalent, against the backdrop of a war with another kingdom. The Japanese voice cast featured Chieko Baisho and Takuya Kimura, while the English dub version starred Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Lauren Bacall, Christian Bale, Josh Hutcherson and Billy Crystal.

The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. The film is loosely based on the 1986 novel of the same name by British author Diana Wynne Jones. Howl's Moving Castle ( Japanese: гѓЏг‚¦гѓ«гЃ®е‹•гЃЏеџЋ, Hepburn: Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

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