Surrealism in Spirited Away

The film is lauded for its imaginary dreamscapes and for creating such a wonderful magical world full of vivid colour and detail.  The studio has links with Disney who help to distribute the film globally but Studio Ghibli films are a very different to more mainstream Disney films.

Unlike a lot of mainstream animation Ghibli films are bizarre, intelligent, and challenging.  Audiences are given credit for wanting more than simple fairy tales.  Young people want to be shocked and at points horrified or terrified to take them out of their comfort zone.  They can deal with complex narratives and explore 'adult' themes ad sophisticated concepts. Where Disney reduce things to their simplest form for an American audience they possibly underestimate, Ghibli are willing to offer a creative and imaginative experience that asks more of an audience. They are willing to provide a sinister edge and magical worlds which do not always make total sense.

The studio creates dreamworlds such as the 'bathhouse' and grotesques, monsters that might seem scary to younger audiences. They are taking a risk doing this but one that has gained them new audiences globally which Disney are keen to align themselves with. Audiences that want more than the traditional Disney fare.

Part of the joy of this film is watching the weird and wonderful creations imagined by the animators.  My favourite are the sootballs carrying coal like the sorcerer's apprentices.

This colourful world reminds me of surrealist cinema of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.  In places the dreamscapes of Dali are evident such as the lantern with a jumping foot.  The narrative is somewhat disjointed and dreamlike also which fits with the ethos of surrealism.

Perhaps the most surreal character is No Face. As in Dali's art the challenge is how we interpret the image to gain meaning.  No Face is meant to be read as a symbol of greed and the effects of consumerism whether Japanese, Western or global.  It is the adult world that has lost its way and like the parents they have become pigs.  Selfish and greedy, obsessed with the desire for more.

Some say that film cannot do metaphor.  What is the symbolism of no-face?

What does this character represent ?

Perhaps over indulgence, greed, narcissism or the adult world itself, a word of sin, ugliness, greed and pollution.  This character is tamed by the good nature of Chihiro. Love conquers all and the poison is extracted.  the pigs are also a metaphor used in other Ghibli films of adults who have been corrupted. In Porco Rosso adults become pigs due to their desire for war.