Spirited Away is fantastic! Takeaways from my first Ghibli movie

Submitted by twovests in just_post (edited )

  • I thought Miyazaki was a hardliner for the analog process. I was happy to see the cars in the opening scenes very clearly rendered by hand, but then surprised to see the crisp, perfect, and obvious computer-aided renderings in the scenes that followed, and throughout the movie. That's not a problem for me-- I just had a slight misunderstanding of Miyazaki's vision, as informed by (1) things inspired by Miyazaki and (2) arguments I had regarding Miyazaki's misunderstood machine-learning statements.

  • I vaguely recognize a number of... Folk figures, for lack of a better word? In the same way that you will see the Moirae or Psychopomps or other folk figures show up in various ways in western media, I'm pretty sure I saw the "three heads" in, like, Mario and YuGiOh cards, or the "two grannys" as a common element in Mario and Zelda. But I know the dragon is not a Miyazaki original, because Dragonology the book tells me that is an Eastern dragon. Which takes me to my third point...

  • Almost all of Japan's cultural exports which I consume are childrens media. I'd ask if people in Japan consume Disney movies like we consume Miyazaki movies, but I don't know any similarly-regarded auters. "Disney" might've been, but that's a brand-- the man is dead.

  • People told me subs > dubs, but the dubs on this seemed really fantastic. I understand people have strong and well-founded opinions on this, and that the subs > dubs people are correct. Can someone tell me if I made a mistake watching with dubs on?

  • I understood the basic plot, but I feel like there is More To Understand. I like having a movie that has more depth than I can take in on a surface viewing.

  • Very good movie, I love the sense of physicality with the animation. There is no room (outside of select spirits) for "cartoonish" looney tunes hijinks. The strictness of the physicality of the animation really elevates the areas where they -- almost imperceptibly -- bend the rules.

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hollyhoppet wrote

studio ghibli films have really solid dubs tbh. also good first film from them to watch tbh

also for possibly comparable studios, if lieu of "auteurs," i'd say disney movies in japan are more hugely popular than ghibli movies in the states. that's probably in part due to the power of the american entertainment exporting machine lol

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twovests OP wrote

That is good to hear. About the dubs, that is, not the inexorability of the youth of Japan today eventually showing their kids Toy Story 13 in the future.

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missingno wrote

Don't worry about anyone being elitist over subs versus dubs. There's a lasting stigma because some older dubs really sucked, but these days dubs are almost always good. Voice acting is taken a lot more seriously as a profession, and they don't cut corners anymore when it comes to hiring good talent.

It's been a long time since I watched Spirited Away, it is old enough to come from that era when some dubs were bad, but this was a high budget film and they put a lot of love and care into bringing it to the west. I definitely loved it as a kid.

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devtesla wrote

these days dubs are almost always good

I would argue against this, just because there's so many speed dubs that come out as fast as possible, like weeks after the shows air. They can be pretty bad depending on the show! But yeah most movies have great dubs.

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oolong wrote

i would comment on how it's another example of miyazaki's ecofascism but i watched the chinese dub in 2002 and then blocked it out of my childhood memory because it was too scary

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twovests OP wrote

i must say i am completely not informed on this at all. but the movie was very scary and tense at parts

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Dogmantra wrote (edited )

the only thing I can think of with ghibli dubs is my friend carl

EDIT: my friend joe toro

double edit it's my neighbour carl/joe toro I'm a fool

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devtesla wrote

I understood the basic plot, but I feel like there is More To Understand.

The key to understanding Spirited Away is that it's meant as a way to pass along values to specifically Japanese kids in 2001, but it's doing so in an open ended dreamy way. It's a lecture from your granddad that spins off wildly. I don't think there's really that much there, it just boils down to "work hard, there's no shortcuts, don't be greedy" but it's kind of fascinating anyway.

I'm not as big on Miyazaki as I am on the rest of the great Japanese animators, he's so focused on achieving a certain standard of quality that there's a lack of risk in the projects he takes on and they kind of turn out blah. He's definitely a great entertainer tho and there's some undeniable masterpieces. I love Porco Rosso and was pleasantly surprised that The Boy and The Heron rules

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twovests OP wrote

Yeah, I see this less as "character development" and more "you too can do a lot of work if you get thrust into a really scary and difficult situation". Which is a reaffirming message for me, as a 360 month old baby,

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