This Week, I will be talking about Spirited Away directed by, Hayao Miyazaki, another of my favourites. It is a story about a little girl, Chihiro Ogino, a 10 Year old Girl, who was bored about her own life and did not really cherish her parents and was always reluctant to explore places with them until they were turned into pigs by a witch. The movie consists of many vibrant coloured scenes and interesting looking spirits with human like personalities.  

Spirited Away was the highest grossing film in the history of Japanese cinema. The most astounding thing about this movie is that Miyazaki wrote, directed, storyboarded and even wrote song lyrics for this film. 

In the special features of the Spirited Away DVD, "The Art of Spirited Away<" a commentor said of Miyazaki, "He writes in pictures." 

Storyboard:

The completed scene from the movie:

Most of the film was drawn by hand. Even though computer graphics was used, it did not overwhelmed the film. The film as a whole seems very 2D. But that gives it its own special charm and innocence. 

The character Chihiro, was inspired by a real life 10 year old girl who was the daughter of Miyazaki's friend. Miyazaki thought that the girl was a  " lazy bum" ( he said so in the special features) but he felt that children had strong inner resources. 

In the booklet of the DVD Miyazaki said that, " I tried as much as possible to make the main character an everyday person. So her face is not particularly beautiful. She was not cute or appealing, and I was wondering what do to with her. But by the end of the film, i wasn't worried about her at all and felt quite sure that she would become an attractive person."

i am glad that he did not make her look like Sailormoon because she would not have been as sympathetic.  Her simple dressing and more ordinary features make her more likable so that the audience will care about her journey and adventure. She becomes like the little sister that we want to look after.

The plot with all the gods taking a break at the bath house allows Miyazaki to create many unique creatures that adds to the flavour.

When the rights were bought by Disney  the dubbing process was done meticulously. First, they had to translate the movie not only literally but also had to make sure that American audiences could understand the cultural references. When dubbing, the voice actors had to watch the  movie and match the mouth movements of the characters. 

In total I think that Spirited Away's art is less graphic in the sense that it is suitable for all ages. While Paprika provokes a lot of thinking, Spirited Away finds its way to peoples' hearts. By telling the story from a perspective of a child, the audience is able to think about their own childhood and growth. The lines for Spirited Away are very simple and the scenes not as detailed as Paprika which can be an assualt on the senses. This works well for the film because the simplicity emphasises the innocence of the world. Even the villains Yubaba and Noface are not truly scary and they seem like what a child would imagine.

Today, I am going to write about my favourite animation of all time, Paprika (2006) by Satoshi Kon. Its target audience is young adults. It is a complex story with many layers like Inception (2010). The plot in paprika is very complex like Inception because it is like a dream in a dream so the characters cannot tell which is the real world and which is not. Both also have another similarity which is that the dream world and the real world inter-connect and the directors make us think about what reality really is and if the lines between real life and dream life can be blurred. In my opinion,  animation is the best medium to explore the layers of reality because through art work and special effects,  the director can portray rapid changes in scenes and really bring up the element of fantasy. Watching Paprika is like being in somebody elses very own unique/nightmare.

In terms of style, Kon uses hand drawing for the animation characters. The characters are  flattened, and angular. This gives a traditional comic book effect and it is very different from fully CGI dependent animation such as Kungfu Panda.  However, Kon also uses CG effects mainly for the background. It is not always clear which parts are hand drawn and which parts are computer generated. In the Paprika Parade Video below it is clear that the confetti is computer animated while the lead characters such as Paprika and Detective Kogawa Toshimi. The effect of mixing CGI and Hand drawn characters make the film more sophisticated. 

From the "Special Features" of the DVD, "The Art of Fantasy", I learnt that the backgrounds were meticulously done by modeling programs such as Maya.  To distinguish between the dream world and the real world,  the artist used muted and more dull colours for the real world and vibrant and bright colours  for the dreamworld. 

Real World

Dream World: 

In "The Dream CG World" Special Feature, the Director of photography spoke about using CG to enhance the scenes. For example, for the dream parade, they used 650 000 pieces of confetti which were positioned to give the scene a sense of depth and separation between the background and foreground. Even for a scene where a car drives through a tunnel in the rain,  they added a brief reflection of the car so that it will be more realistic. In another scene, the patterns that form on a car window were also carefully studied and recreated.

 In the picture above, Detective Konokawa is running through a warped hall way in his dream. This

scene repeats a few times in the film. In order to create it, the CG team had to think about what it would feel like to walk on something very soft like candyfloss. They took 3 months to perfect this scene alone because they wanted to mimic the feeling of being in a nightmare. 

Satoshi Kon died on Augest 24, 2010 and he could not finish his last film called, "The Dream Machine". When i read his last words I was very moved because  though he was dieing he was still thinking about animation. His biggest regret was not being able to finish his final film since they have already created the storyboards. He said, " I haven't been idly waiting for death, even now I', thiking with my weak brain of ways to let the work  live even after i am gone. But they are all shallow ideas.". This touches me because it shows how much passion he has for animation. Here is a link to the rest of his translated letter: http://makikoitoh.com/journal/satoshi-kons-last-words

In class this week, we focused on Warner Brothers. My favorite character  was Daffy Duck because he had a very strong personality. In "Duck Amuck" ( 1953) Daffy Duck was drawn and redrawn in front of the viewers' eyes, but his voice as well as his distinctive beak was still recognisable. I also found it more interactive because he had eye contact with the viewer in the sense that he appeared to be talking directly to the viewers. In the theatre this is known as breaking the fourth wall and this breaks the illusion that we are watching a cartoon. This makes it very different from the earlier animation we watched. Watching the artist drawing Daffy Duck with different costumes makes us think about how costumes affect the characterisation of a cartoon personality. For example, Donald Duck's trademark costume is a sailor's costume and Mickey Mouse has iconic red pants.

However, even when Chunk Jones turns a Daffy Duck into a flower, the character was still identifiable because the voice and personality remained the same. In this cartoon, Daffy Duck comes across as dissatisfied and angry.  Right before he is erased he says "Buster, it may come as a complete surprise to you to find that this is an animated cartoon, and that in animated cartoons they have scenery, and in all the years I've..."  Chuck Jones is playfully making the viewers think about our expectations about cartoon conventions.   By making Daffy Duck question the artist's intentions,  he is giving Daffy Duck a life beyond existing in the cartoon. Daffy is like an actor, who is trying to play his role right, but the stage designer, the costume designer and the director are all making fun of him.

It is interesting when he is erased, he never dies and he asks, " All right wise guy, where am I?" I am sure that i am not the first person to notice that this cartoon ask profound questions about our relationship to a creator and also the relationship between art and identity.  I recently watched a play called "Freud's Last Session" at the Esplanade where Sigmund Freud and C.S Lewis discuss the existence of god. In The Truman Show (1998), Jim Carrey's character is like Daffy Duck because he questions his surroundings and  the sets he is living in.  Like The Truman Show, the creator is revealed at the end of Duck Amuck and it is...Bugs Bunny. In 1955, Chuck Jones put Bugs Bunny and Elmer J.Fudd in a reverse situation in " Rabbit Rampage"