Spirited Away
Films that shaped it
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Alice in Wonderland Atlas note
Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli, which is itself a world cinema institution. Miyazaki's films draw from Japanese folklore, Shinto spirituality, and a specifically Japanese relationship with nature and the supernatural that has no Western equivalent. The entire Ghibli catalogue is streaming on Max, but Miyazaki's deeper influences, the Japanese animation tradition, the folk tales that Totoro and Spirited Away draw from, are worth exploring. Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä are the gateway to understanding what Miyazaki is actually doing.
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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Atlas note
Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli, which is itself a world cinema institution. Miyazaki's films draw from Japanese folklore, Shinto spirituality, and a specifically Japanese relationship with nature and the supernatural that has no Western equivalent. The entire Ghibli catalogue is streaming on Max, but Miyazaki's deeper influences, the Japanese animation tradition, the folk tales that Totoro and Spirited Away draw from, are worth exploring. Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä are the gateway to understanding what Miyazaki is actually doing.
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My Neighbor Totoro Atlas note
Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli, which is itself a world cinema institution. Miyazaki's films draw from Japanese folklore, Shinto spirituality, and a specifically Japanese relationship with nature and the supernatural that has no Western equivalent. The entire Ghibli catalogue is streaming on Max, but Miyazaki's deeper influences, the Japanese animation tradition, the folk tales that Totoro and Spirited Away draw from, are worth exploring. Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä are the gateway to understanding what Miyazaki is actually doing.
Films it shaped
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I’m also very inspired by Japanese animation. I love Miyazaki’s work. I consider him to be one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Especially ‘Spirited Away,’ which I think is one of the most powerful and moving films ever made. It’s certainly influenced me.
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DeBlois: ...definitely a lot of those touchstone films from the 80s like E.T., The Black Stallion, The Neverending Story, and then some of the Hayao Miyazaki films, like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, for their emotional intelligence and the fact that they don’t dumb down the material for a younger audience, and that the stakes feel real and compelling.
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Spirited Away was one of those movies for me that really imprinted on me as a child... It showed me what was possible in animation... It definitely taught me the power of putting a really quiet, intimate, personal story in this really big, epic, fantastical world.
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Inside Out Atlas note
Pete Docter studied Miyazaki's use of ma, the Japanese concept of emptiness, of silence as presence, to understand how to pace emotional films. The quiet moments in Inside Out where Joy and Sadness simply exist together are learned from watching Miyazaki let moments breathe. Docter cites Miyazaki as foundational to his understanding of animation as medium for feeling. Both My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are on Criterion Channel.
