Spirited Away is not only an academy winner, it put its creator Hayao Miyazaki on a pedestal and made him an international superstar. Japan’s highest grossing movie of all time, Spirited Away captured the hearts and souls of people from all walks of live around the world because of its enchanting storyline.
With a very rich plot and well developed characters, it is not surprising that the film performed so well and even got an academy award. The 2001 film left a legacy which lives on close to two decades later. What made the movie to be such a blockbuster?
To understand why the movie was such an international hit, we took time here at MTG Lion to look at some of the lesser known facts about Spirited Away and its creators. These are both fun facts and things that you didn’t know about Spirited Away which you didn’t know about and which will make you fall in love with movie even more;
Spirited Away Had no Script
Yes! Despite the fact that the movie seemed to have such a well-researched plot and developed characters, it in actual sense didn’t have any script. According to Hayao Miyazaki, he didn’t have enough time to create a start to finish script for the film. Instead, he opted to develop the story one storyboard at a time.
The filming therefore started long before the storyboards were completed. The story therefore develops organically at the pace of the creator and this explains why it is so captivating. There was no hurry in making it- it almost feels like the film creates itself over time.
All the work you see on the film, is Hayao Miyazaki’s
From writing the story, directing the filming to the actual designing of the storyboards, Miyazaki did everything that you see on the movie. Every single detail that is seen on the movie is the work of one man and his vision to create a story that appeals to the millions who will watch it.
Miyazaki had an eye for detail
One of the reasons why Miyazaki is such a revered filmmaker, is his eye for detail. Miyazaki creates hyper-realistic creations and this stems down to the close attention he pays to detail. Be it a strand of hair, dirt at the bottom of feet, a scratch on chopsticks on a zipper reflecting light, Miyazaki tried his level best to capture all the details.
The close attention paid to the details when creating the storyline plays a very important role in developing the characters. Without the small details, the film would have lost its organic feel and it would have been generic and chances are, it would not have made it past the cinemas in Japan.
The movement of characters in the film is inspired by animal movement
The movement of the characters in the Spirited Away Film is inspired by the natural movement of animals. A lot of the actions that you see portrayed by the characters, stems from the movement of a number of animals that Miyazaki envisioned in his mind.
To ensure that the actions portrayed are as accurate as Miyazaki wanted them to be, he personally oversaw the animation of the characters and specially instructed the animators to use various animals’ movements and natural movements to achieve whatever motion he was looking for. So obsessed was Miyazaki with the natural movement of animals that the crew had to once go to vet’s office to film a dog’s mouth movement.
Spirited Away Holds a Number of Box Office Records
So successful was Spirited Away that it holds a number of box records to date. Upon release, the movie earned more than 30 billion yen which was a record previously held by Titanic at the box office. This earned the movie international status and soon enough, people all over the world were thronging in cinemas to catch a glimpse of the iconic movie.
If to date you have never watched the film, then perhaps you should watch it today to understand why it is so revered worldwide. If you have watched it, it wouldn’t hurt to take the journey down the memory lane and watch the iconic movie again today.
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