Character Profile: Sophie Hatter
Fields | USA Info | Japanese Info | Image |
---|---|---|---|
Name | Sophie Hatter | Sophie Hatter | ![]() |
Alias | Granny | Ba-chan | |
· · · | Mrs. Pendragon | ||
Race | Human | Human | |
Gender | Female | Female | |
Age | Looks about 18-20 years old (young), 90 years old (old) | Looks about 18-20 years old (young), 90 years old (old) | |
Hair | Brown (originally), Gray (when old and young) | Brown (originally), Gray (when old and young) | |
Eyes | Brown | Brown | |
Height | 5'2" | 157 cm | |
Weight | |||
Status | Cursed, Hauru's lover | Cursed, Hauru's lover | |
Quote | "Howl...Calcifer...It's me, Sophie! I know how to help you now! Find me in the future!" | "Hauru...Calicifer...It's Sophie! Wait for me! I promise I'll come back for you! Wait for me in the future!!" | |
Voice | Emily Mortimer (Young Sophie), Jean Simmons (Old Sophie) | Chieko Baisho | |
Debut | |||
Anime | Howl's Moving Castle | Hauru no Ogoku Shiro |
Character Description: Sophie Hatter
For a boring girl, Sophie does not seem like she will be the heroine. She looks dull, acts dull, and has no personality. Living up to her Father's dream (continuing the hat shop), Sophie spends most of her time working. That all changes...
One day, when Sophie was going to see her sister, Lettie, she was stopped by two soldiers, who wanted to have some "fun" with some of the local women. Being trapped by the two, Sophie is rescued by the handsome, cunning Hauru. Using his magic, he sends the soldiers away, and escorts Sophie to her destination. However, Hauru is being watched, and some blob men appear and try to capture Hauru. Being cunning, Hauru uses his magic and whisks himself and Sophie up in the air, and takes her to her destination.
Unfortunately, the Witch of the Waste has noticed that Hauru has (supposedly) set his eyes on a new girl. She decides to pay a visit to Sophie during the night. Sophie, shocked to see a customer in her store after business hours, asks her to leave. Only then does the obese lady reveal to Sophie that she is the Witch of the Waste! At that, the witch casts a spell on Sophie, turning her into a 90 year old woman! The witch tells her that Sophie cannot tell anybody about that spell and asks her to send Hauru her regards. This is where Sophie's adventure begins...
Being terrified for life, and afraid that she will be recognized, Sophie flees her home town and sets out towards the mountains. Being old, Sophie needs a cane; she spots a stick stuck in some bushes, and she decides to use it as a cane. That's where she finds "Kabu" (Turnip, the scarecrow). Sophie, not one for turnips, leaves the scarecrow behind, only to find that the scarecrow follows her. The magical turnip brings her cane, and Sophie cunningly asks the scarecrow to bring a house to her. Seeing the turnip runoff, Sophie continues her journey, only to find that the scarecrow appears again, bringing Hauru's "castle" as her house! Sophie, having no other place to go, enters the castle, where she meets a talking fire, Calcifer.
Later on, she meets a young boy, Markl, whom she befriends. Sophie decides to become Hauru's cleaning, who scrubs the entire castle from top to bottom due to its filth. Unbeknownst to Sophie, she mixes up Hauru's embellishment spells, which changes his hair from blond to black. Seeing Hauru fly into a rage, whining that its useless to live since he can't be beautiful, Sophie screams with anger saying she was never once beautiful in her life. Running out crying in the rain, Sophie is met by Kabu yet again. However, during her meeting, Markl cries out to Sophie to help Hauru.
With Hauru recovering from his tantrum, Sophie tells Hauru naively to see the king and tell him to stop this crazy war. However, Hauru has a different idea; Sophie will go in his place, as his mother! Hauru says that he will follow her in disguise.
On Sophie's walk to the palace, she is met by an old looking dog who accompanies her (Sophie thinks that the dog is Hauru). Along the way, she is met by the Witch of the Waste, who is on her way to see the king. However, the witch is in for a surprise. Suliman has casted a spell around the palace that visitors must walk up to the palace. Sophie, being old, and carrying an old dog, manages the many stairs. The witch, on the other hand, is having a pretty hard time...
Once at the palace, Sophie is greeted by "Servant" (a young boy looking like "Haku") who leads her to another room while the witch sits in a chair in the waiting room (to recover from the burdening walk). That's when things get "heated up" (literally)!
Sophie, who is greeted by Madam Suliman, the king's magician, explains to Sophie that Hauru was her last apprentice; she thought she had found a worthy heir. However, Hauru made a deal with a demon (Calcifer) that stole his heart. He abandoned Suliman, and used his magic for purely selfish uses. Suliman tells Sophie that if Hauru keeps this up, he is sure to end up like the witch of the waste.
"Bring her," cries Suliman to "Servant".
Sophie, horrified, sees what the Witch of the Waste really is: an old crone. Suliman explains to Sophie that a long time ago, she was a wonderful witch, but she made a deal with some kind of phantom, that consumed her body long ago. Suliman tells Sophie that Hauru has two choices: one is to serve her, or two, take his powers as she has done with the witch. Sophie, disgusted at the abuse of power, confronts Suliman and explains that Hauru is good. Her loving talk turns her back into her original self. Suliman, shocked and amazed, understands that Sophie is in love with Hauru...
From there, Sophie now has to battle with Suliman's creatures in order to protect herself, and the love of her life: Hauru.
Character Description: Sophie Hatter
Sophie is a typical teenager who spends most of her time working at a hat shop. When she is saved from two officers by a handsome and mysterious wizard (Howl) and saved again from horrible, slime creatures, she finds herself victim of a curse by the Witch of the Waste. Sophie is transformed into a 90-year-old woman.
She goes to the Wastes, home to many wizards, witches, and demons, to escape her family. She meets what seems to be an enchanted scarecrow who helps her get to Howl's castle where she stays as their new cleaning lady.
As time goes on, she starts to fall in love with Howl and through these feelings she is determined to save him from the monster he would become. It seems that, as time goes on, she starts to convert between the form of an old woman and a younger form. This wasn't technically explained during the movie, but it seems likely that the curse was starting to break as she grew more attached to Howl.
Sophie eventually seems to break the spell, but it seems her hair never changed back to brown but stayed silver. During the last major battle known in the war, she manages to save everyone, including Howl, and returns his heart (held by Calcifer) to him.
She kisses Howl on the lips when he is weakened and still in his giant bird monster thing state...but it seems he did not remember or even realize she kissed him. She later kisses Turnip head (the scarecrow) and he goes back to the form of a prince and she turns out to be a his true love, but as Howl awakens she seems to forget about this.
In the end, Sophie moves in with Howl, Markl, Calister, and the Witch of the Waste (now an old, powerless woman) permanently and a young woman again and it seems Howl and her probably got married. (We can assume such since they were in love with one another)
Overall, Sophie is kind and caring but can be quite cunning and tricky if she needs to be. She lacks self confidence and doubts she is pretty despite Howl telling her she is beautiful once in the movie and the second time he says her hair is beautiful, she agrees and pretty much glomps him. (Glomp: to spontaneously jump on someone's back lovingly.)