Spirited Away

An interesting element I found in Spirited Away is the portrayal of elders. A good example is Yubaba. She is in charge of the bathhouse, she has control over people, and is also very powerful. By making her obscurely larger than everyone from head to toe (literally), Miyazaki further emphasizes how powerful she is. He breaks from the stereotype of elders being weak and fragile. As we see in the film, Yubaba is anything but that. We also see this type of characterization in Castle in the Sky. The sky pirate, who is referred to as Mama, is also an old woman who is powerful. She is adventurous and clearly takes charge of her group. Miyazaki uses this characterization again in his next film, Howl's Moving Castle, which becomes a main focus.

Another thing I wanted to touch upon is the concept of the pigs' transformation. When Chihiro's parents are transformed into pigs, it reminded me of the old Disney film, Pinocchio. In Pinocchio, there is a scene where a lot of little kids are taken to an island filled with carnival rides and things to break. The kids are given the opportunity to misbehave without getting in trouble by parental authority. However, later that night they realize that they have transformed into donkeys. In this film, it is implied that the donkeys never transform back into kids nor are they reunited with their friends or family since they have been shipped to places where they will be used for labor. This scene made me wonder if the pigs in Spirited Away we're all humans. If two of those pigs were Chihiro's parents, how certain are we that the other pigs are just pigs? It also made me wonder about what they were going to do with the pigs. Obviously, the pigs wouldn't have been used for labor. They don't even provide anything else like other farm animals do. The only real use for a pig is food.

After putting these two scenes together, I realize just how similar they really are. The two scenes both involve transformations involving bad behavior. Just like how Pinocchio shows children that it is wrong to only play and have fun, Spirited Away shows that we shouldn't believe that money will solve everything.