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Princess Monoke and Spirited Away
Apr. 8th, 2024 09:00 amThere's a big gap in my animation watch list and it's embarrassing to say I've never watched a Studio Ghibli movie from start to finish until recently, except for Pom Poko. Fortunately in today's world, that's easy to fix.
The main thing I noticed about both films, and I'm sure I'll continue to notice, is how unique the character designs and storytelling are. One would be hard pressed to find a squirmy, worm infested boar in a Disney or Pixar film. There's a layer of authenticity and creativity which is so refreshing for me as a viewer. The movies are definitely for older children and up--both of these would have scared me as five year old.
There's also a sense of characters "just as they are". For example, in Princess Monoke, there are many groups and individuals all with different goals and sometimes good intentions. I was sure Lady Eboshi was the villain, until I discovered that she rescued women from brothels and was kind to lepers. I'm so used to the good/evil binary that I found myself thinking deeply about struggles the characters faced in the movie.
Spirited Away, as a newer movie, had more polished animation and again, I fell in love with the different character designs of the monsters and spirits young protagonist Chihiro encounters. Simply being spirits does not make them "bad", although they are kind of jerks to Chihiro. Most child characters in movies have something going for them like smarts or charisma, but Chihiro has neither. She's just a ten year old girl doing what ten year olds will do. She makes mistakes and learns from them. Her capacity to care for others and determination to help those she loves carries her throughout her journey.
The main thing I noticed about both films, and I'm sure I'll continue to notice, is how unique the character designs and storytelling are. One would be hard pressed to find a squirmy, worm infested boar in a Disney or Pixar film. There's a layer of authenticity and creativity which is so refreshing for me as a viewer. The movies are definitely for older children and up--both of these would have scared me as five year old.
There's also a sense of characters "just as they are". For example, in Princess Monoke, there are many groups and individuals all with different goals and sometimes good intentions. I was sure Lady Eboshi was the villain, until I discovered that she rescued women from brothels and was kind to lepers. I'm so used to the good/evil binary that I found myself thinking deeply about struggles the characters faced in the movie.
Spirited Away, as a newer movie, had more polished animation and again, I fell in love with the different character designs of the monsters and spirits young protagonist Chihiro encounters. Simply being spirits does not make them "bad", although they are kind of jerks to Chihiro. Most child characters in movies have something going for them like smarts or charisma, but Chihiro has neither. She's just a ten year old girl doing what ten year olds will do. She makes mistakes and learns from them. Her capacity to care for others and determination to help those she loves carries her throughout her journey.
