Howl's Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is loosely based on the 1986 novel Howl's Moving Castle by British author Diana Wynne Jones. 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. The film is set in a fictional kingdom where both magic and early twentieth-century technology are prevalent, against the backdrop of a war with another kingdom. 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.