Director Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle) was warmly received Sunday at the Venice Film Festival. The audience who packed the 1000-capacity hall exploded into applause and whistles for more than five minutes after the show. Howl’s Moving Castle, based on a children’s book of the same name by British author Diana Wynne Jones, is entered in the competition section. Set in a world of science and witchcraft, the story describes the romance between a sorcerer named Howl and an 18-year-old girl, Sophie, who is turned into a 90-year-old crone under a spell on the eve of war.