El castillo ambulante
In September 2001, Studio Ghibli announced the production of two films. The first would become "The Cat Returns" and the second was an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' novel, "Howl's Moving Castle". A rumor persists that Miyazaki had an idea to do "Howl's Moving Castle" during a visit to Strasbourg Christmas market. Toshio Suzuki, who produced "Howl's Moving Castle", stated that Miyazaki was inspired to make the film when he read Jones' novel, and was struck by the image of a castle moving around the countryside. The novel does not explain how the castle moved, and Miyazaki was interested in figuring out how the castle might move, which led to the image of a castle on chicken legs. The complex moving castle changes and rearranges itself several times throughout the movie in response to Howl's eccentricity and the various situations. The basic structure of the castle consists of more than 80 elements including turrets, a wagging tongue, cogwheels and chicken legs, that were rendered as digital objects.