FAQ for
Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004) More at IMDbPro »

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To remain trapped emotionally in childhood.

Howl makes a bargain with Calcifer in the flashback scene. Calcifer gains Howl's heart but is bound to serve Howl (heating water, moving the castle, etc). The problem with the deal is it strips Calcifer of his freedom and leaves Howl heartless (in the emotional sense).

Not really. She's met with representatives from Studio Ghibli but does not have any input or involvement in the production of the film.

She's quoted in this USENET posting as saying, "It's fantastic. No, I have no input - I write books, not films. Yes it will be =different= from the book - in fact it's likely to be very different, but that's as it should be. It will still be a fantastic film."

The following comes from someone who attended a private screening of the film in Bristol:

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She enjoyed it a great deal and she particularly recommends anyone who sees it to watch out for the falling stars, which she says are "out of this world, literally and figuratively". Although it doesn't follow the plot of the book exactly nor have quite the same characterisation, and includes things that are definitely not in the original text, she didn't come away feeling unhappy with what has been done with her work.

At the meal, she and Miyazaki talked with each other so much that the poor girl interpreting for them didn't get a bite to eat, and DWJ was quite worried for her (but she was able to hand over to another interpreter after a while and did get some food in the end). He seems to be a great fan of the Dalemark books in particular, and his understanding of them and his views about them impressed DWJ a lot.

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Yes, the Pendragon door is located in the Kingsbury (the capital) while the Jenkins door leads to Porthaven. When Madam Suliman is tracking down Howl she sends troops to both locations.

She "unlinked" the castle from the hat shop so that Howl would not continue to put himself in danger protecting the shop from the bombing. Lacking the magical knowledge which allowed Howl to "move house" with precision earlier, she settles for the ad-hoc solution of destroying the entire setup. Needing to set the castle going again so that she can rescue Howl, she makes her own bargain with Calcifer (giving him her braid), offering him just enough power to run a smaller version of the castle.

In the novel the movie is based on, Howl's name is revealed to actually be Howell Jenkins, a teenage boy from present-day Wales who has been able to cross to the world where the bulk of the novel takes place. (This is the source of the "Wizard Jenkins" name.) In the novel an attack is made on even this distant location, spurring Howl to respond.

Apparently, whenever Sophie feels good about herself or becomes enraptured by her love of Howl, the spell curse the Waste put upon her weakens. While not specifically stated, she retains the gray or "starlight" color hair as a mark of the wisdom she's gained.