First Term Paper

Anna Wong
Art 123 MW
October 14, 2009

Analysis of Physics in Howl’s Moving Castle

In Howl’s Moving Castle, the laws of gravity are obeyed. The movement of the characters on land, water and air are correct. Even the blob monsters, which appear to be some sort of liquid composition are behaving like liquid should in reality. All elements in this movie falls as it should fall in reality, and float as if things should float in real space. The only time gravity is altered is when Howl, the male protagonist uses his magic and if any other magical being is using magic to distort time and space. That’s when there are illusions and gravity is still present, however, it is altered by the removal of the ground. The animation is very believable, successfully creating a world that can belong in our reality. When Howl flies, he flies as a bird should fly and walk on air like we walk on land in real life. The falling of objects large or small is consistent and follows the set of physics laws, but is slowed down for the purpose of entertainment.

Illusions in the movie are a little off from reality, that’s why they are call illusions. Because the movements of some things are made to be a little faster, it gives a better effect to the scene. At the palace, Madam Suliman, the court-appointed sorceress of the king creates an illusion after meeting Howl, and seeing that he will not fight under her leadership, she attempts to trap Howl and drain his magic powers. The illusion starts when Suliman pierces the floor with her staff and creates a new dimension and water comes pouring out. The water traveled about 5 inches within 1 ½ second then fills the room with water and then turns into the sky, and then they are left floating in that alternative dimension. Using the timing equation; (Distance in inches) = (Number of Frames) x (Number of Frames) x (1/3 inch), the water travels about 60 feet in 1 ½ seconds. That’s about 68.86 miles an hour! This seems too fast, however assuming that the water that came from a different dimension was compressed, the pressure was high and came out to this dimension which currently is dry, causing the water burst out of the portal to achieve equilibrium and that can be a reason to explain why it is faster that it is supposed to be, and also this directing choice is more entertaining to watch. Although it is just an illusion, Howl is the only one that seems to have his grip on standing on the real ground which has now become an illusion of air. Sophie is being held up by Howl and seems to be floating and does not have a foot hold, meanwhile the Witch of the Waste has succumb to the illusion and is falling into Suliman’s illusion desperately whimpering and grabbing onto Sophie’s dress. This signifies that there is no ground or that the illusion is very powerful, and whoever believes that it is an illusion will be trapped in the alternative dimension. In this illusion, there are star children that Suliman summoned. They surround Howl, Sophie and the Witch of the Waste. Although they are currently in mid-air, the star children projects their shadows on where the ground should be, but there is no ground. The shadows somehow show the weakness of the illusion and that the characters are still standing on solid ground. As Howl gets entranced in the illusion, he begins to change into a monster. Sophie breaks him out of it, and Howl uses the ground to jump up, pushing onto the ground for a bigger re-action giving him an unbelievable ability to jump up about 20-25 feet into the air and out of the palace greenhouse they were in.

Flying in this movie is abnormal, because we really can’t fly, but if we were all able to fly, this is what it should look like. Early in the movie, when Howls takes Sophie into the air to loose the blob monsters from following them, Howl starts out with a jump, and then both Howl and Sophie’s gravity becomes abnormal. They are floating in the air, and there is a resistance of wind going up her dress. They both settle on a layer of air and start walking. Their “walking” on the air is slowed because they are lacking a solid ground to give a re-action to push them to go forward at a normal speed of walking if they were on the ground. The “walking” on the air’s purpose is to slowly propel them through the air. There is a resistance of the wind going the opposite direction. When Howl and Sophie land on a rooftop pole, they are given a re-action and are pushed forward like a normal dash on the ground. Howl sets Sophie down and leaves her at her destination and jumps off the building to disappear. He jumps about 3 inches (a story) in about half a second. Using the timing equation, that is about 12 feet from the apex. Compared with the result of the actual time of falling in ½ a second, the character should have only fallen 4 feet in half a second. Howl jumps off the balcony he stays in the air for a split second (slowing in and apex) and then falls 3 inches in about half a second more.
After Howl’s dispute with Madam Suliman, Howl and the gang escapes from the palace greenhouse using a stolen flying kayak. The Flying kayak is flying about 2.5 inches per second at full speed that is about 20 feet per second, and 13.63 miles an hour. How is that possible that she is at full speed of about 14 miles per hour and crash lands on the moving castle able to break a brick wall with so little momentum? That was unrealistic. Not only was the brick wall completely destroyed, a couch the size of a love seat was thrown about 3 feet into the air and flew about 5 feet from its original point. However unrealistic it may be, the movements are still consistent, and everything is still following the laws of physics in terms of the gravity, as a result can fool the viewer. This directing choice makes this crashing scene more interesting to watch even if it’s a little ways off from reality.

As Howl was presenting Sophie with his gift of his portal to his old study, a large war blimp passes by. It is flying about an inch per second. That is about 8 feet per second, 5.45 miles an hour. According to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, their Blimp is 132 feet long, 44 feet wide and 37 feet tall. That’s about as tall as a three story building and 1/3 the length of a football field and can fly about 25-30 miles per hour. The blimp in this movie is twice as large, and the bigger the mass, the slower the object moves, however, the blimp in this movie is going very slow. It could be that making something of that size go so slow creates a bigger intensity and fearfulness of the war blimp.

In the early parts of the movie, Howl is transformed as a black sparrow in his black portal warring against the war blimps. In the black portal, many war blimps were being attacked by Howl, the war blimps fall about 2 inches per second from the sky at in unknown altitude. Using the timing equation, that is about 16 feet per second, 110.76 miles an hour. That’s really fast. Although it seems fast it looks believable in the movie, so I have no complaints. Another example of falling is when Howl, Sophie and the Witch of the Waste falls from Howl’s jump from the greenhouse to the flying kayak. After Howl jumps out of the greenhouse, he stays in the air for a little bit for the apex slowing in and out effect and then Falls about 3 inches in 1 second from the roof of the greenhouse and onto the flying vehicle in perspective. They fall about 44 feet from the roof to the ground, and the estimated roof is about 20-25 feet, so that is pretty accurate.

As Sophie and Howl lands on the remains of the moving castle near the end of the movie, Sophie takes Calicfer, the fire demon and asks him to give Howl back his heart. When the spell of Howl and Calicfer is broken, the last remaining piece of the castle stops functioning, and the castle falls down a steep 45 3.5 inches 1 second, 28 feet per second, about 19 miles per hour, that’s about a good amount of speed when falling from a really steep side of a mountain.

Miyazaki and his team made Howl’s Moving Castle a believable world. Miyazaki created a world comparable to our own because he followed a consistent set of laws in physics. Gravity was present and the movements were accurate. Although magic of that caliber does not exist in our world, we could still see it, and believe it. Some things were exaggerated much like the crash landing, but it was to give a greater effect on the scene. Overall, Howl’s Moving Castle was a pleasure to watch.





Works Cited Page

Horizon, "Blimp Q & A". Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. October 10, 2009.