Markl is the tritagonist in the 2004 animated Studio Ghibli film, Howl's Moving Castle. He is the young apprentice of Master Howl, and he is also friends with Sophie. He is shown to be quite knowledgeable about how everything works with regards to the castle, including that Calcifer only obeys his master, and that they can freely travel to any of the locations that the castle is connected to with magic, with one exception: the black section of a wheel (which only Howl knows about and where it leads). Josh Hutcherson did his voice in the English dub.
Appearance[]
Markl is quite short, with messy ginger hair and pale white skin. He is of an average build, and is often seen wearing a cloak, when in Howl's castle. This is because he uses it to disguise himself.
Personality[]
Markl is very obedient, often doinng what he is told and following Howl's instructions very closely. He also gives pointers to Sophie when she first arrived, making sure to keep her out of trouble. He was even called a henchman of the Witch of the Waste. While at first he found Sophie troublesome, as they spent more time together, he quickly grew quite fond of her to the point that he begged her not to leave when it looked like she might do so later on and may have even started to see her as a mother figure. While he acts pretty precoious and mature for a kid his age a lot of the time, especially whenever's he's working, in more casual situations, he still shows that he's very much a normal kid with normal habits for better and for worse. For example, when Sophie gets Calcifer to cooperate so that she can cook them a proper breakfast, he gets extremely giddy at the prospect of finally having a real breakfast and shows a lack of table manners by immediately stuffing his face in a messy manner (much to Sophie's dismay), and at the end of the movie, he is seen cheerfully running around and frolicking in a small outdoor space.
Trivia[]
- In the original novel, Markl's name is Michael Fischer and he is 15 years old.
- In The Film He Is 10 years old.