The Secret World of Arrietty

The Secret World of Arrietty is about a family of "Borrowers," or otherwise known as "the little people," who live in their own tiny house in the basement of Shaun's (the main male character) aunt's house. The story starts with Shaun having to stay at his aunt's house because of his weak heart, and when he arrives he sees Arrietty, the young borrower who is gathering various herbs and plants from the yard. Over time, Shaun and Arrietty become friends, even though Arrietty was told that "beings" are dangerous.

Eventually Arrietty's mother gets kidnapped by the maid of the aunt's house, and the woman calls the exterminators to have a look and catch the "special pests" in the house. Arrietty and Shaun work together to save Arrietty's mother, even though they face many potentially dangerous and troublesome trials along the way.

I feel that this movie was actually a really good one. I guess it's based off of "The Borrowers" series by Mary Norton - with a touch of Studio Ghibli! When I watched this movie I once again couldn't get over how amazing the details of the background are and I wonder how much time is actually put into each scene of these amazing animated movies.

In terms of the characters I felt that Arrietty was definitely a teen that probably most people could relate to: she's adventurous, out-spoken, and just itching to go explore the bigger world beyond her own home. She's pretty much ready to grow up, which is something probably all teenagers can relate to at one point in their lives. Shaun is a decent character, but I'm not really sure his voice actor, David Henrie, did a great job of it. I felt Shaun was too quiet too often, as he didn't really talk much above a hushed tone. But other than that, the other characters were either loveable (Arrietty's parents) or unlikeable (the maid... during certain moments, anyway).

There are plenty of scenes where you'll find yourself laughing, scenes where you'll be in suspense, and scenes that you just want to watch over and over again.

The movie is rated G. I do recommend this movie, but don't get your heart set on a definite romance if that's what you're hoping for.

Click the trailer below to watch!

The Characters of My Neighbor Totoro

So let's take a look at the character's of Studio Ghibli's "My Neighbor Totoro." There are a plethora of loveable characters in this movie, but let me start with Totoro himself.

 

Totoro is a spirit of the forest who dwells in a very large camphor tree on the Kusukabe's  new property. He is the largest totoro that lives there and is very...loud. Totoro is an easily loveable character that grows on you from the very beginning with his eyes closed in sleep. He snores and only wakes up when Mei starts to tickle his nose. But soon he goes right back to sleep.

Totoro is a fun character because of his goofy personality. He'll always have a big grin on his face when he wants to do something or he's ready to do something, otherwise he'll have a very curious expression as he figures out what he's doing or how things work (like the rain drops hitting an umbrella). He also helps to create the wind over the grass and helps trees to grow.

Totoro may be a semi-quiet (he roars) character, but he's also one of the most loveable characters in any Studio Ghibli film. I love the fact that he helps nature grows and flourish and that he'll be seen by people he wants to be seen by. It's great that not everyone can see him because otherwise it wouldn't be as great of a movie as it is; it wouldn't be able to strike up the imagination like it does.

Next up: Satsuki

 

Satsuki Kasukabe is a young girl (probably around 10-13 years old) who is very mature for her age. She thinks she has to be because her mom is sick in the hospital and she is the older sister. She knows how to cook and clean, but she's also full of a lot of energy. Even at the very beginning you see her doing cartwheels and running around the house at a fast pace.

One thing that's very noticeable is how much she cares for her sister. Like all sisters, they fight, but she does everything she can to try to find Mei. And even though she doesn't believe in Totoro at first, he decides to reveal himself to her and she can't help but look amazed. She even goes to Totoro for help when Mei gets lost. She grows immensely as a young lady, and you also get to see how she's been having her emotions well up for a long time. She tries to be strong, but she's still a young girl worried for her mom.

Next: Mei

 

Mei Kusukabe is a small girl, probably no older than 4 years old, who loves to do exactly what her big sister does. At the beginning of the movie she's like Satsuki's shadow, following her around and doing exactly as she does. Mei is an adorable character who is the first to see the small white totoro, the blue totoro, and then meet Totoro himself.

Like all little girls, she can also be a cry baby when someone does something she doesn't like. She especially gets upset with Satsuki when she tells Mei to stop acting like such a baby. In fact, she runs away to go visit her mom in the hospital, but ends up getting lost. Though the two have their differences, they do have one thing in common: Totoro.

Next: Catbus

 

Now there isn't much to know or say about the Catbus other than this is probably the most easily recognizable and unique character in the movie. Catbus has 12 legs (6 pairs), two mice for red lights at the top, yellow eyes that glow like headlights, and a big, bushy tail. But what makes him so awesome? Just the fact that he's a CatBUS. The door to the bus open with a funny sound and the interior is all fur. Must be comfy. Though he isn't really a main character, I wanted to give him some honorable mention. 

Even though Granny, the girls' father, and a few others are secondary characters, I won't be mentioning them here in much detail. Yes, they all have their own important roles to play, but the movie was definitely more about Totoro, Satsuki, and Mei. I feel as though the characters, and the voices behind them, truly act their age and show a development as Totoro makes more of an appearance in their lives. Whether or not he'll appear in their lives all the time is another question all together, but that's for a different time.

My Neighbor Totoro

Many of you may have seen this as a kid, but perhaps not. Studio Ghibli's "My Neighbor Totoro" is definitely a classic and one that kids should definitely see!

 

This movie is about a family that moves out to the country because of their ailing mom at the hospital. When they move there, they find out that they're house is haunted with soot sprites and there are acorns all around the floors and out in the yard. The father and two young girls, Satsuki and Mei, laugh their fears away and the soot sprites move out. Later, the youngest girl, Mei (in the picture above), discovers a small "totoro" (troll) that is transparent, and as she chases him around her yard, she discovers another, larger totoro carrying a bag of acorns. As she chases them into the woods, she then enters into Totoro's (the big furry troll in the picture above) home - inside a very large camphor tree!

After tickling Totoro awake and falling asleep on top of him, Mei finds herself awake in a grove of trees where her sister, Satsuki, and her father find her. The story goes on where Satsuki is then able to see Totoro herself and the two girls have several adventures with him, including waiting for their dad at a bus stop in the rain, riding a catbus, making a forest grow in their yard, and making the wind rush by.

This story is a very adorable plot line filled with some heart warming and funny moments. The movie is rated G. If you have kids, this would definitely be something to show them! It allows the imagination to grow, in my opinion, and sets out a belief that there are amazing things out there to discover - only if they want to be!

I love this movie, personally, as it was actually one of my first anime films I watched as a child. The graphics are simple, but perfect, and like always, the scenery is beautiful! The characters are ones that you can relate to on a personal level and think about how you were as a kid. There are real life struggles that don't seem so far out of reach, but there is also hope in them. And then there's the fantasy, the magic, that spreads throughout the story as it introduces Totoro himself!

This is actually one of the most famous characters, and Totoro is also Studio Ghibli's logo that shows before every movie of theirs! (It's also my background on the blog!)

If you're interested in a good kid's movie with adventure, fun, and laughs, this is definitely one to watch!

Click the trailer below to take a peak at what this movie has to offer!

A Look at the Characters of Spirited Away

So let's take a look at the characters of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away. There are several main characters that play an essential role in the movie that really develop (or not) throughout the story.

First up: Chihiro.

She is the main hero in this story, a young girl who at first is a crybaby, but as she goes through the many hardships from working at the bathhouse to having her parents turn into pigs, she grows into a mature young lady.

Chihiro, at the beginning of the movie, is very whiny. She's also very dependent on her parents for everything. But when her father decides to take a "short cut" to their new house through the woods, they come across what looks to be an old train station.

As they walk through to the other side, they discover a large open field that they didn't know existed. The dad smells food and decides to go across the river (which is where the magical world lives) and the parents eventually get turned into pigs when they decide to eat the food. Chihiro seems to be the only smart one, though, as she doesn't eat the food at all.

She's scared, of course, and she has help from Haku, a "henchman" for the witch that manages the bathhouse. With the help of Haku and others, Chihiro is then able to get into the bathhouse and get a job. Her name gets taken away by Yubaba, the bathhouse witch, but Haku has her hold onto her name from a card a friend had given her before she moved.

So, at the beginning of the movie, I feel like Chihiro will never grow up, that she'll just be stuck in that world forever, but as the movie plays on I start to really see a development in her that I don't even know where it started. She has manners, she does good work (even if she's slow at first), and she tries to help out as many people as possible.

Toward the end I have a real liking for Chihiro. She grows up immensely and isn't afraid of anything. She's willing to risk it all to save her parents, Haku, and No Face (a spirit) in different instances. All of this can happen from a little girl like Chihiro. It's truly amazing.

Next up: Haku

Haku is a very complex character, I think, in the movie. He first appears after Chihiro wanders from her parents when they're stuffing their faces and she sees the bathhouse and she goes onto the bridge leading to the bathhouse. He's shocked that she's there (everyone from the world that see Chihiro knows she's a human) and tells her to leave. But as night falls, he has to help her out. When she can't get back across the river, he gives her food so she wouldn't disappear from the world and helps her to escape and get a job.

Haku also runs a lot of the "errands" for Yubaba. He's sort of the henchman, but he's also a good guy. It's a hard situation to figure out at first when he treats Chihiro coldly, but he ends up being a really good guy.

Later on, you also find out he's a dragon.

He tries to take a golden seal from Yubaba's twin sister, Zeniba, but ends up getting poisoned by it (as well as chased by paper figures that Zeniba charmed and attacked him with). Chihiro not only breaks the spell from Zeniba's seal with true love, but she also breaks (squishes, actually) the curse that was put on him by Yubaba.

As Chihiro and Haku (as well as Yubaba's bird-turned-mini-bird and son-turned-rat) leave Zeniba's place, Chihiro remembers when she was a little girl how she fell into the Kohaku River and was saved by Haku himself! He hadn't remembered his true identity until then, and they both cry because they were so happy.

And yes, I totally ship them.

Next: Yubaba.

 

Now, Yubaba isn't very likable from the start. She's a witch that runs the bathhouse and is very cruel indeed. She has a very strong magic, and a baby she loves to death, but otherwise she's not very likable. Her twin sister, Zeniba, is much more likable (which is astonishing considering they look the same but have such different personalities). I don't have much to say about her other than she doesn't develop much as a character and she's really mean.

Next: No Face

 No Face is a spirit that has, well, no face, and there is a lot of mystery that surrounds him. He ends up being, what I think to be, a greed spirit that tries to draw others in by duplicating things that they want (such as gold or bathhouse tokens). He turns into a monster when he devours three of the workers from the bathhouse, as well as a lot of food that the workers provide because he gives out "gold" by the handfuls.

Chihiro is the only one that can really save him, and he ends up going back to his normal self. He travels with Chihiro to Zeniba's and ends up staying there as her assistant. There isn't much to say of him other than he's a secondary main character, but very loveable toward the end because he's a misunderstood being.

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So, those are just some of the main characters that reside in the world of Spirited Away. They're all very different and very complex in their own way, but they're still loveable (except Yubaba, but I'll leave that to you to decide).

Spirited Away

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy moving into a new apartment and getting acclimated with it. Anyway, onto the blog post.

So I watched Spirited Away by the director/producer Hayao Miyazaki. Any Studio Ghibli fan knows this man by name as he has created many of the wonderful films that the Studio has produced.

In the movie, a young girl, Chihiro, is moving to a new house with her parents when, on the way, they take a "short cut" and end up on the other side of a river where magical things take place. Her parents get turned into pigs when they eat the food and Chihiro is left all alone to find someway back. That's when Haku, a young boy her age, comes to help her. She almost manages to get free, but is then discovered and has to ask for a job so she wouldn't also be turned into a pig. Along the way, she grows immensely as a person and makes new friends as well as discover what true love really is.

The movie is rated PG.

This is one of my favorite films by Miyazaki, simply because of the detail and thought that is put into his works. Spirited Away is a fine example as to what it's like to go through hardships in life, only to grow up and find that there is much more than just being a spoiled little kid.

I think that the details shown in this movie, from the many intricate details of the bathhouse to the characters' personalities as very well drawn out and portrayed in the film.

Click below to watch the trailer.

If you love fantasy movies, then this is definitely a movie to watch. It has romance, drama, action, blood... What more can you ask for?

What Is This?

This is my blog where I will talk about, give my opinions on, assess, and review the various films from Studio Ghibli. I will also provide any material reviews of any of the various Studio Ghibli items based off of the characters or movies that I may have.

This is purely a fan-based blog as I have no association with Studio Ghibli.

I have been a fan of Studio Ghibli since seeing my first film by them back in the early 1990s. The film was Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. Since then I have seen various films such as Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and more.

So I hope you find my view points on the films to be helpful if you are a fan of Studio Ghibli, or if you are just discovering the films for the first time.

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Any and all pictures that are official works of art from Studio Ghibli will be credited in each post. 

The current background of this blog is ©Studio Ghibli. It is their official logo.