Spirited Away

• 1. A Girl Who Forgets Her Name

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  Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents Akio and Yūko travel to their new home. Akio takes a shortcut through a tunnel leading to what appears to be an abandoned resort town. Yūko insists on exploring the area despite Chihiro's protests. They find a seemingly empty restaurant stocked with food. Chihiro's parents immediately begin to eat without hesitation. While exploring further, Chihiro finds an enormous bathhouse nearby. A boy named Haku warns her to return across the riverbed before sunset. Spirits begin to appear in the air around them. Chihiro discovers that her parents have been transformed into pigs. She cannot cross the now-flooded river back to safety. Haku finds Chihiro and instructs her to ask for a job from the bathhouse's boiler-man Kamaji. Kamaji is a yōkai spirit commanding soot sprites known as susuwatari. Kamaji instead asks a worker named Lin to bring Chihiro to his master Yubaba. Yubaba is the witch who runs the bathhouse and cursed Chihiro's parents. Yubaba tries to frighten Chihiro away but eventually gives her a work contract. As Chihiro signs the contract with her name, Yubaba takes away the second kanji in her name. She renames the girl Sen. Chihiro soon forgets her real name completely. Haku later explains that Yubaba controls people by taking their names. If Chihiro completely forgets hers like he once did, she will never be able to leave the spirit world.

• 2. Miyazaki's Summer Inspiration

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  During summers Hayao Miyazaki spent his vacation at a mountain cabin with his family and five girls who were friends of the family. The idea for Spirited Away came about when he wanted to make a film for these specific friends. Miyazaki had previously directed films for small children and teenagers such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. He had not created a film specifically for ten-year-old girls before this project. For inspiration he read the shōjo manga magazines like Nakayoshi and Ribon that the girls had left at the cabin. Miyazaki felt they only offered subjects on crushes and romance. He felt this was not what these young friends held dear in their hearts. He resolved to make the film about a young heroine whom they could look up to. Miyazaki had wanted to produce a new film for years but his two previous proposals were rejected. One proposal was based on the Japanese book by Sachiko Kashiwaba. Another proposal was about a teenage heroinewhich also failed. His third proposal which ended up becoming Spirited Away was more successful. The three stories revolved around a bathhouse that was inspired by one in Miyazaki's hometown. He thought the bathhouse was a mysterious place. There was a small door next to one of the bathtubs in the bath house. Miyazaki was always curious about what was behind it. He made up several stories about it. One of those stories inspired the bathhouse setting of Spirited Away.

• 3. Hand-Drawn Dreams And Digital Tools

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  Production of Spirited Away commenced in February 2000 on a budget of US$15 million. The film was produced in association with Tokuma Shoten Nippon Television Network Dentsu Buena Vista Home Entertainment Tohokushinsha Film and Mitsubishi. Disney's 10% investment allowed for the right of first refusal for North American distribution. As with Princess Mononoke Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli staff experimented with computer animation. With the use of more computers and programs such as Softimage 3D the staff learned the software. They used the technology carefully so that it enhanced the story instead of stealing the show. Each character was mostly hand-drawn. Miyazaki worked alongside his animators to see if they were getting it just right. The biggest difficulty in making the film was to reduce its length. When production began Miyazaki realized it would be more than three hours long if he made it according to his plot. He had to delete many scenes from the story. He tried to reduce the eye candy in the film because he wanted it to be simple. Miyazaki did not want to make the hero a pretty girl. At the beginning he was frustrated at how she looked dull. He thought She isn't cute. Isn't there something we can do? As the film neared the end however he was relieved to feel she will be a charming woman. During production Miyazaki often sought inspiration by visiting the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei Tokyo. He based some of the buildings in the spirit world on the Pseudo-Western style buildings from the Meiji period that were available there. The museum made Miyazaki feel nostalgic especially when he stood alone in the evening near closing time and the sun was setting. Tears well up in his eyes.

• 4. Rivers Of Pollution And Lost Identities

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  Chihiro encounters kami of animals and plants within the bathhouse. Miyazaki cites the solstice rituals when villagers call forth their local kami and invite them into their baths. Chihiro also encounters kami of animals and plants. The concept of kamikakushi literally means hidden by gods within the Japanese title. It reinforces this liminal passage where social death occurs and coming back means social resurrection. Additional themes are expressed through No-Face who reflects the characters who surround him. He learns by example and takes the traits of whomever he consumes. This nature results in No-Face's monstrous rampage through the bathhouse. After Chihiro saves No-Face with the emetic dumpling he becomes timid once more. At the end of the film Zeniba decides to take care of No-Face so he can develop without the negative influence of the bathhouse. Pam Coats describes Chihiro dealing with the stink spirit who turns out to be a river spirit. It is corrupted with filth so much that one cannot tell what it is at first glance. It only becomes clean again when Chihiro pulls out a huge amount of trash including car tires garbage and a bicycle. This alludes to human pollution of the environment. Haku does not remember his name and lost his past which is why he is stuck at the bathhouse. Eventually Chihiro remembers that he used to be the spirit of the Kohaku River. That river was destroyed and replaced with apartments. Because of humans' need for development they destroyed a part of nature causing Haku to lose his home and identity.

• 5. Lasseter Champions The Film

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  John Lasseter Pixar animator and a fan and friend of Miyazaki would often sit with his staff and watch Miyazaki's work when encountering story problems. After seeing Spirited Away Lasseter was ecstatic. Upon hearing his reaction to the film Disney CEO Michael Eisner asked Lasseter if he would be interested in introducing Spirited Away to an American audience. Lasseter obliged by agreeing to serve as the executive producer for the English adaptation. Following this several others began to join the project. Beauty and the Beast co-director Kirk Wise and Aladdin co-producer Donald W. Ernst joined Lasseter as director and producer of Spirited Away respectively. Screenwriters Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt penned the English-language dialogue. They wrote it in order to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements. The cast of the film consists of Daveigh Chase Jason Marsden Suzanne Pleshette Michael Chiklis Lauren Holly Susan Egan David Ogden Stiers and John Ratzenberger. Advertising was limited with Spirited Away being mentioned in a small scrolling section of the film section of Disney.com. Disney had sidelined their official website for Spirited Away and given the film a comparatively small promotional budget. Marc Hairston writing for FPS Magazine argues that this was a justified response to Studio Ghibli's retention of the merchandising rights to the film and characters.

• 6. Box Office Records And Academy Wins

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  Spirited Away was released theatrically in Japan on the 20th of July 2001 by distributor Toho. It grossed a record ¥1.6 billion ($13.1 million) in its first three days beating the previous record set by Princess Mononoke. It was number one at the Japanese box office for its first eleven weeks and spent 16 weeks there in total. After 22 weeks of release and after grossing $224 million in Japan it started its international release opening in Hong Kong on the 13th of December 2001. It went on to gross ¥30.4 billion to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. It also set the all-time attendance record in Japan surpassing the 16.8 million tickets sold by Titanic. Its gross at the Japanese box office has since increased further. In February 2002 Wild Bunch an international sales company picked up the international sale rights for the film outside of Asia and France. On the 13th of April 2002 The Walt Disney Company acquired the Taiwanese Singaporean Hong Kong French and North American sale rights to the film alongside Japanese Home Media rights. Spirited Away became the first hand-drawn non-English-language animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.