In “Howl’s Moving Castle,” the cursed young girl is Sophie.
Sophie is a young milliner and the eldest of three sisters. While returning from a visit to her sister Lettie, she encounters the wizard Howl, an event that draws the attention of the Witch of the Waste. The Witch later visits Sophie’s hat shop and transforms her into a 90-year-old woman.
Rather than remain at home, Sophie leaves to search for a way to break the spell. She meets the enchanted scarecrow Turnip Head, who leads her to Howl’s moving castle. There she meets Howl, his apprentice Markl, and Calcifer, the fire demon who powers the castle. Sophie becomes the castle’s self-appointed cleaning lady and eventually helps uncover the connection between Calcifer and Howl.
A common mix-up is identifying Turnip Head as the cursed character. He is also under a spell, but Sophie is the girl cursed by the Witch of the Waste. The film is Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 Studio Ghibli adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s novel.