Transformations: the British-Japanese movie Howl's Moving castle

Magnet masking, a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

The Miyazaki anime movie Howl's Moving Castle is an example of international connections in creativity.

The story originated as a 1986 book by noted British fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones.

Mrs. Jones was clearly inspired by her background in Oxford, where she heard lectures by authors CS Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and JRR Tolkein (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit).

Miyazaki brought the story to colorful life at Studio Ghibli, Tokyo, with artistic license to prepare the story as the Japanese moviemaker saw fit.

Transformations seems to be the dominant theme of the story of Lord Howl and Sophie and the Witch of the Wastes.

The movie was nominated for an Academy Award in 04.