Soldiers break into the homes of both Jenkins and Pendragon (Howl's two aliases), finding them to be nothing more than abandoned buildings in disguise; the castle's magical door had allowed travel through both false shopfronts.

Following the charmed ring, Sophie wanders into a scene from the past, where she sees a young Howl catch a falling star – Calcifer – and give him his heart.

[10] The brutality and futility of warfare are graphically depicted in the film; entire cities are set aflame, and the titular castle is made to fall apart.

[11] Animation scholar Susan J. Napier writes that Howl is placed under a "spiritual form of curse", his horror and fury growing throughout the film as he witnesses the fighting.

[13] Napier also draws a comparison to the character San of Princess Mononoke; she and Howl are isolated from humanity by circumstance, and both ultimately go to war to defend the goodness in their lives.

[17] A scene where Sophie is standing in a beautiful field of flowers is interrupted by a war machine, "a finger accusing empire as the destroyer of peace.

[17] Andrew Osmond stated that "Howl's pure-hearted anti-war stance is presented as nihilism with no alternative as he fights forces from each side and becomes the worst terror of all", in the form of the monstrous bird.

[19] According to Carl and Garrath Wilson, the battleships that are seen moving over the landscape are depicted as "gleaming with modernity and parading righteousness", but are then shown to be highly destructive.

[21] Additionally, even though Sophie manages to make her presence in the castle legitimate by claiming to be a cleaning lady, the film goes on to show that the housework is equitably distributed, strengthening its feminist aspect.

[21] Several of the protagonists in Miyazaki's films, such as Ashitaka and San in Princess Mononoke and Sheeta and Pazu in Castle in the Sky learn to survive by showing compassion.

Parsons writes that "In Miyazaki's balancing act, old women can be powerful and weak, positive and negative, nurturing and selfish, maligned and loved; in short, they can not be simply categorized or stereotyped, and they can not be dismissed as fantasy malefactors embodied by evil witches.

[15] Mamoru Hosoda of Toei Animation was originally selected to direct the film but quit the project after Studio Ghibli's executives rejected many of his concept ideas.

[25] Like with the other Studio Ghibli movies, the film was co-produced with other companies, which were Tokuma Shoten, the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Mitsubishi and Toho.

[27] As a result, characters such as Sophie's second sister Martha are left out, as is the plot thread involving Markl (who is called Michael in the novel and depicted as an adolescent, rather than as a young boy) courting her.

In the film, it is a "rotund collage of chimneys, roofs, steam pipes, and other odd appendages, borne along on mechanized bird legs"[28] that is similar to Baba Yaga's hut in the popular fairy tale.

The Witch of the Waste is the chief antagonist of the book, whereas in the film she is reduced by Madame Suliman's magic to an ultimately harmless old woman who evokes sympathy in the audience and Sophie.

Reviewer Antonia Levi wrote that the experience of watching the film was similar to reading high-quality fan fiction; although the characters and the setting were the same, the story was different.

Hisaishi also composed and conducted Howl's Moving Castle: Symphony Suite, an album published on 21 January 2004 which includes ten re-arranged pieces from the original soundtrack.

[36] The film was later dubbed into English under the supervision of Pete Docter of Pixar, and released in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures on 10 June 2005.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Exquisitely illustrated by master animator Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle will delight children with its fantastical story and touch the hearts and minds of older viewers as well.

[5] USA Today critic Claudia Puig gave the film a positive review, praising it for its ability to blend "a childlike sense of wonder with sophisticated emotions and motives".

[44] Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies said that the natural world was "beautifully represented", with "some absolutely breathtaking mountains and lakeside landscapes".

[46] Richard Corliss of Time wrote, "Palaces and shimmering lakes, warplanes and fire sprites all come to life at the breath of Miyazaki's graphic genius.

"[47] Writing for The Boston Globe, Ty Burr said, "At its best, 'Howl's Moving Castle' offers a rich fantasy of adolescent escape, of romance in the old and epic sense.

Scott of The New York Times wrote, "Admirers of [Hayao Miyazaki's] work, which is wildly imaginative, emotionally intense and surpassingly gentle, will find much to appreciate in this film because it demonstrates, once again, his visual ingenuity and his sensitivity as a storyteller.

"[49] Conversely, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half out of four stars, and called it a "disappointment" compared to Miyazaki's other recent movies.

[50] Jonathan Trout of the BBC said, "Youngsters and Miyazaki fans will coo at the world's depth and rich surreality, but opaque plotting, and a tendency to mope with Sophie whilst Howl is off affecting events let the momentum of the first act vanish into thin air.

"[53] David Rooney, writing in Variety, stated that "the narrative motor roars ahead in the opening hour and is more erratic thereafter," and suggested that better translation would help.

[26] Literary scholar Matt Kimmich stated that the film came across as "uneasy compromise between two plots and two imaginations," referring to Jones' original story and Miyazaki's style of animation and storytelling.

[56] In 2019, the Cité internationale de la tapisserie [fr] in Aubusson collaborated with Studio Ghibli to make five tapestries based on works by Hayao Miyazaki from 2019 to 2024; two depict scenes from Howl's Moving Castle.