Spirited Away is an animated film worth watching for more than twice, there is no guilt or something wrong if you watch it over ten times because it is totally worth it that every time you re-watch it you find it more fascinating and find new things that a lot of people do not notice at first glance, no wonder this animated film by legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki captured the hearts of millions of viewers around the world.
Spirited Away (Sen and Chihiro’s Spiriting Away) is a 2001 Japanese animated film which is considered a coming-of-age fantasy animation written and directed by Miyazaki himself and was animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, and the Buena Vista Home Entertainment of the United States.
The voice actors in the animated movie were Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, and Takeshi Naito. The story of this film is about Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year old girl who moved to a new neighbour who was able to find a portal or a way to the spirit world after some magical occurrences. Her mission was to find a way to bring her parents back to normal and get back to the human world.
As a tribute to this amazing animated film, we decided to compile some of its most fascinating facts that you have not known yet so take a minute and read this article.
- MADE WITHOUT A SCRIPT- Spirited Away was created by Miyazaki by facing a blank wall, meaning, he did not prepare any script in making this film despite the fact that this film is totally rich with characters, plot, and life lessons. It was not made with a script, but Miyazaki said that he created the story of the film right when they started developing it from its drawing storyboards, as the production were rolling, so as the storyboards.
- MIYAZAKI DOES IT ALL- No wonder he is hailed as the master of Japanese animation, Miyazaki singlehandedly wrote, drew, and directed the entire Spirited Away film. What was more fascinating was everything was hand drawn, meaning there was minimal Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) that was added to the entire film. In short, it was a work of art, a masterpiece. Even though it was only created by a single person, not a single frame in the animation was poorly done, each frame, and scenes were carefully drawn with intricate details and rich color.
- REAL LIFE STORY- One of the main characters, Chihiro was inspired by one of the friends Miyazaki’s daughter. Miyazaki said that Chihiro was based on a girl who was an adolescent, and a very apathetic character. He taught of making a character mainly focused on a ten-year old girl who was average, no special characteristics, traits, not at all.
- CHARACTERS BASED ON REAL EXPERIENCE- The river spirit in the movie was based on Miyazaki’s experience when he was cleaning a river. Called the Stink Spirit, in one of the movie scenes, this character regularly goes in the bathhouse to clean itself as Chihiro, found a bicycle handle sticking from its side. Chihiro pulled the handle only to find out that it only revealed a polluted river. In Miyazaki’s experience, he once cleaned a polluted river where he found an old bicycle there and pulled it out to clean it up again.
