I particularly love the strange chicks and the soot demons. Ghibli goes one better and brings fantastical creatures into being. Disney are great at creating lovable anthropomorphic characters. She finds herself surrounded by a whole host of unusual creatures and characters. Chihiro goes down a rabbit hole of sorts and finds herself in a world beyond her control and completely foreign to her, much like Alice does.
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The writer-director’s hand-drawn scenes burst with energy and invention, and Miyazaki takes full advantage of the fantastical story to devise dozens of unique spirits and creatures that roam this world of utterly inscrutable rules and impenetrable logic.” (894) and I can see the comparisons. Klein says “ Spirited Away is in many ways Miyazaki’s Alice In Wonderland. Spirited Away is one of his best pieces of work. The level of detail in the backgrounds is always beautifully rendered which is a contrast to the sometimes simplistic character presentation. “ he certainly isn’t a precursor of things to come, because it’s hard to imagine anybody but Miyazaki doing what he does.” (894) Miyazaki has unquestionably created the most intriguing and beautiful films made the prestigious Studio Ghibli and they now have an almost precious quality to them following the announcement of his retirement. The artwork is incredible and has an etherial quality to it. I certainly found the English version of Chihiro extremely annoying and quite grating however this wasn’t the case in the Japanese version. I understand the idea behind the English language versions – they make the films a whole lot more accessible to a much wider audience but to me it just makes more sense to watch them in Japanese as they were intended. I definitely prefer the Japanese version. I have watched Spirited Away a couple of times recently, once in the dubbed English version and then again in the original Japanese with English subtitles. Joshua Klein says “ his unfailingly intelligent films appeal to both children and adults, simple enough for the former to enjoy yet complex enough for the latter to appreciate on a different level.” (894) and this is another similarity with the Disney films. Don’t get me wrong I love Disney – I have since I was tiny and probably will until I’m old and grey – and the films of Studio Ghibli, and Miyazaki in particular, are exquisite but there are moments when a creepiness, or maybe uneasiness is a better term, emerges. The films that come out of Studio Ghibli are as different to those that emerge from Disney as can be. However I think that it’s too sweeping a statement.
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And of course John Lassiter takes control of the American/English language versions.
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I guess because the films that set the studio apart are, for the large part, animation you could draw a comparison. “With every film that he makes, Hayao Miyazaki sets the standard for animated features higher and higher.” (894, Joshua Klein, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Studio Ghibli has, in the past, been called the Japanese Disney.