Cave of Mind

Cave of Mind is Howl's cave of memories as seen in the film, Howl's Moving Castle.

History
The castle is quiet in the middle of the night with everyone asleep. Sophie wakes up to a sound. the sight of feathers and blood on the floor makes her nervous. She enters Howl's room on the second floor, which has turned into a dark cave. The cave is filled with toys from Howl's childhood. Howl now a monster, wriggles around in the dark. Sophie says, "I want to help you,", but the monster Howl rejects the offer, "It's too late," and vanishes in the darkness.

Behind the Scenes
Art director Noboru Yoshida explain how he envisioned the setting, "In my concept art, I experimented with turning Howl's room into a cave. Sophie is holding a candle so I tried incorporating its light, but Miyazaki said, 'No, I want you to treat it as a mental image'. He informed me how the cave wasn't filled with real objects illuminated by Sophie's candlelight, so much as it was a passage to Howl's memory. So it's not a concrete illustration, it's a scene where one's memory of the past resurfaces. Because Howl's toys such as the dolls symbolize Howl's memory, I made the colors bright and immune to the candlelight."

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