Japanese Anime: Spirited Away

An Interview with Hayao Miyazaki translated into English.

"This film is an adventure story, although the characters neither swing weapons around, nor use supernatural powers in battle. It is an adventure story, but its theme is not a confrontation between good and evil. It will be a story of a girl who was thrown into a world where both good and evil exist. She gets trained, learns about friendship and devotion, and survives by using her wisdom ... "

"... The movie arrived at a time when animation was widely perceived as a genre solely for children, and when cultural differences often became barriers to the global distribution of animated works. Spirited Away shattered preconceived notions about the art form and also proved that, as a film created in Japanese with elements of Japanese folklore central to its core, it could resonate deeply with audiences around the world ... "

"As an Academy Award winner and Japan’s highest grossing movie of all time, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has captured the hearts of viewers all over the world. Fall in love with the movie all over again, with these little-known facts ... "

"Disney distributed the film. But as one critic pointed out, “Seeing just 10 minutes of this English version … will quickly disabuse any discerning viewer of the notion that it is a Disney creation." ... "

"Magical is a word used casually about films like this, films about fantasy and childhood. Yet this one really does deserve it: an enchanted and enchanting feature from the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki which left me feeling lighter than air. It is a beautifully drawn and wonderfully composed work of art - really, no other description will do - which takes us on a rocket-fuelled flight of fancy, with tenderly and shrewdly conceived characters on board ... "

"Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away came with built-in expectations. After the exhausting but highly successful production of Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime, 1998), the director announced his retirement from filmmaking. It was a promise he reneged on when meeting the ten-year-old daughter of a friend ... "

Within the first 15 minutes of Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning 2001 anime feature Spirited Away, the world has transformed. We find ourselves lost in some kind of enchanted realm with 10-year-old heroine Chihiro, whose parents have taken a diversion on their move to a new home; the film charts her arrival and adventures in a world ruled by spells, spirits and sorceresses.

"Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl, sulks in the back seat of her parents’ car. The family is on its way to a new home in a new town, and Chihiro doesn’t want to move. When her father gets lost taking a short cut, they discover the entrance to an abandoned theme park ... " Spark Notes provides an overview of the movie's plot, characters, literary devices and more.

"Broadly speaking, Spirited Away is a movie about coming of age in a time when the world is becoming less caring. The facts presented to the viewer about Chihiro’s world are that she was forced to leave her friends behind, presumably because her already comfortable parents found a better economic opportunity. It’s also a time of environmental loss: development in Japan has annihilated the Kohaku River whose spirit once saved a drowning Chihiro ... "

"... Given the critical and festival plaudits, it’s ironic that Spirited Away had opened in Japan just as the computer-animated Shrek was breaking records in America. At that time, everyone seemed to be talking about how cartoons were busting out of the children’s ghetto, following the lead of The Simpsons. Western animated films were praised for including split-level, dual-response jokes and references, many designed to fly over children’s heads. Spirited Away stood out because of its lack of obvious split-level humour ... "

"... Chihiro surely is a resilient and courageous character determined to save her loved ones, but have you ever thought of her as an eco-activist? There is a key moment in the movie where a Stink Spirit full of debris comes in to use the bathhouse. While everyone else turns their nose to the Stink Spirit, Chihiro works hard to help it. Chihiro finds and removes a bicycle from the stink spirit, which causes all kinds of other pollution to spill out. We then find out that the Stink Spirit was actually a River Spirit that had been filled with tons of rubbish. In creating the Stink Spirit, Spirited Away Director Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by his own experience cleaning a highly polluted river (he even found a bicycle in it, just like in the movie!). The River (Stink) Spirit symbolizes the damage we cause to our Mother Earth. By helping the River Spirit, Chihiro fights the consequences of the pollution she didn’t contribute to, of the harm she never caused ... "

"Studio Ghibli is one of the most famous Japanese film production companies, co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki, known as one of the world’s greatest animators. He also earned a reputation as an environmentalist who creates numerous films to move the audience to reflect on environmental concerns such as climate change. Here is my analysis from an ecological perspective on four of Studio Ghibli’s most environmentally-conscious films ... "