Howl's Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 novel of the same name. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho. It stars the voices of Chieko Baisho, Takuya Kimura and Akihiro Miwa. Set in a fictional kingdom against the backdrop of warring kingdoms, where both magic and early 20th-century technology are prevalent, it tells the story of Sophie, a young milliner who is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his refusal to fight for the king.