Spirited Away (2001)
Description: Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihiro’s dismay. On the way to their new home, Chihiro’s father makes a wrong turn and drives down a lonely one-lane road which dead-ends in front of a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They go through the tunnel and find an abandoned amusement park on the other side, with its own little town. When her parents see a restaurant with great-smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat and pay later. However, Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to explore the theme park a bit more. She meets a boy named Haku who tells her that Chihiro and her parents are in danger, and they must leave immediately. She runs to the restaurant and finds that her parents have turned into pigs. In addition, the theme park turns out to be a town inhabited by demons, spirits, and evil gods. At the center of the town is a bathhouse where these creatures go to relax. The owner of the bathhouse …
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Stars: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino
Photos
Trivia
Despite having a rich plot with developed characters, Spirited Away (2001) was not made with a script. In fact, Miyazaki’s films never had scripts. “I don’t have the story finished and ready when we start work on a film,” the filmmaker told Midnight Eye. “I usually don’t have the time. So the story develops when I start drawing storyboards. The production starts very soon thereafter, while the storyboards are still developing.” Miyazaki does not know where the plot is going, and he lets it happen organically. “It’s not me who makes the film. The film makes itself and I have no choice but to follow”.
In order to animate the scene where Chihiro force feeds Haku the medicine in his dragon form, Hayao Miyazaki had his animators study a dog’s mouth as they fed it treats while a veterinarian held its lower jaw.
The cleansing of the river spirit is based on a real-life incident in Hayao Miyazaki’s life in which he participated in the cleaning of a river, removing, among other things, a bicycle.
There are several instances in the English-dubbed version where dialogue was added in that was not present in the original Japanese release. In an interview with John Lasseter, he explained that it was a necessary addition to help clarify certain elements for American audiences. For example, what is clearly a bathhouse to a Japanese viewer might not be apparent to an American viewer, so this translation issue was fixed by having the character explain, “Oh, it’s a bathhouse.”
When Chihiro arrives at Zeniba’s house, the jumping lamp with sound effect is a nod to the Pixar logo.