Howl’s Moving Castle is one of Studio Ghibli’s most captivating stories, featuring witches, wizards and walking castles. While the whole affair is wonderfully fictitious, apparently the film’s creators want to change that, by creating a real life moving castle [via Kotaku].
Okay, saying that the castle is “real life” is slightly misleading. It won’t be clambering around the countryside and isn’t powered by a fire demon, but it will look pretty damn impressive. The structure will be around four-to-five stories high and highly detailed [via Tokyo Shimbun]. It will be a perfect replica of the animation’s iconic building.
The castle will be a part of Studio Ghibli’s new theme park, which will be accompanied by other attractions like the village from Princess Mononoke amongst various other memorable Ghibli settings.
Each area of the park will be distinct, offering a detailed experience based on a specific part of the Ghibli universe, whether it’s “Springtime of Life Hill” based on The Cat Returns, or the Totoro-themed Dondoko Forest.
The project will apparently cost around 34 billion yen in total and plans to launch in 2022. The aforementioned Howl’s Moving Castle attraction will reside in the “Witch Valley”, with the park’s creators claiming that the structure will be fifty per cent complete after 2021.
The recent pandemic has meant that theme parks are a no-go, meaning that anyone developing a park will have to think very carefully about when they plan to open their gates.
This is something Nintendo know all too well, as the company have had to indefinitely postpone their Super Nintendo World theme park opening. Nintendo’s debut theme park was originally supposed to open today, 4th February, before the escalating situation with the COVID-19 pandemic derailed Nintendo’s plans. Despite reports of a delay, it’s now believed the park is open to guests.
With any hope, Studio Ghibli’s attempts at opening a park will go a bit smoother. While visiting a life-like replica of Howl’s Moving Castle is definitely something for the bucket list, I personally hope that the food at the park looks as good as in the Ghibli Films (just don’t turn me into a pig, alright?)
Are you hoping to one day visit the real life Howl’s Moving Castle?
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Featured Image Credit: Studio Ghibli