Miyazaki Films

Director Miyazaki and his films, are among many things that I learned about during the course of this year. I had however heard of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, but I had not actually watched either of them. I was a bit surprised to find out that we would be watching Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke in class but never the less it was certainly fun. All of the movies shared the anime style. Miyazaki was able to apply great detail to his characters and this technique made all the movies more believable and easy to follow.

The story line for Spirited Away and Princess Mononke follow a similar basic format. In Spirited Away, Sen ended up in a new place, much like Ashitaka in Princess Monoke and they were both seperated from the ones their families. Ashitaka and Sen also both fell in love with people with animal characteristics. For example, Haku turned into a dragon, and San was raised with the wolves. Unlike Ashitaka, Sen was more of a naiveté instead of a skilled fighter like Ashitaka.Another thing that I noted was that all of the movies had animals as relatively important roles. In addition the main human character tried to understand and befriend them. Miyazaki's movies tend to involve nature quite a bit as well. In Spirited Away water was the main element used where as inMy Neighbor Totoro and Princess Monoke the forest was a major part.

In My Neighbor Totoro I especially liked the fun, likable characters. They were drawn so well you couldn't help but like them, especially Totoro. My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away were more comedic than Princess Monoke. I think that Princess Monoke was partially that way because Miyazaki was trying to get an actual message across, one about the importance of harmony between people and nature.

All in all Miyazaki's movies are very detailed and believable. He has shown the capability to create movies that make you want to laugh at times and feel terribly sad.