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Movie Night! - Spirited Away



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Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:31 pm
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Virgil says...



As some of you may know, on the Unofficial Young Writers Society (uYWS) Discord, we hosted a Movie Night yesterday night and showed the movie Spirited Away! This doesn't mean anyone who wasn't there can't participate in the discussion, of course!

I'll go ahead and give some personal introspective, since as of now I've seen the movie twice. I'm quite a fan of Spirited Away and Ghibli and general, and the animation for the movie is phenomenal. Not only that, but the soundtrack is beautiful. If you've seen the movie, I'll go ahead and ask a couple of questions about it to spark the discussion!

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1.) What were your first impressions of the movie?

2.) Who was your favorite character and why?

3.) What did you think of the character design?

4.) What part of the movie do you think was strongest?

5.) How does it compare to you to other Ghibli movies if you've seen any?


With that being said, discuss!

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Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:46 am
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Gringoamericano says...



Spirited Away was my first Ghibli flick. I recall broadcasts of it airing on the Cartoon Network yeaaaarrrssss back and not really being particularly interested.

I can gladly say that young-me didn't know what he was thinking. (Nearly) everything about the film was just wonderful; the story, the character designs, the visuals. This has been said a hundred times before, but the team of artists and animators at Ghibli is just top-notch

My one minor complaint would be with the voice acting; specifically Haku. It struck me as...slightly stiff, although maybe that may have been the point?

There's something really Disney-esque about it (and I'm not just saying that because Disney's in charge of distributing Ghibli's films in America) that I can't quite put my finger on. Like, it's possibly influenced by Disney while still being it's own wildly original thing.
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Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:27 am
Virgil says...



@Gringoamericano Spirited Away is the classic Ghibli film, in my opinion. I've thought of it that way as I've seen more and more of Ghibli, because it's the most well-rounded and I also think that it's the easiest for the average person to get into. It's what they're most known for, a lot find it to be anyway. I do agree that the voice actor of Haku didn't fit that well and felt it was a little stiff too.

I like how much depth there is put into the character designs in this movie, because the art is absolutely amazing and I'm sure there's some sort of lore or mythology behind it as well, which is always amazing. I do agree that it's sort of Disney-esque, but I think that's in a good way.

It's still original enough to be it's own standalone piece of work without having to be tagged to Disney too. I find that it gets a lot odder and takes more risks in that aspect than Disney does in that aspect, but I love that. I love the weird designs and that there was a
Spoiler! :
giant baby
in the movie we were being hidden from for some of the time.

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Sun May 07, 2017 6:29 pm
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Lael says...



1.) What were your first impressions of the movie?
- It was a little different from what I'd seen before, but it was absolutely fun and funny. It had my attention right away. It was not my first Ghibli movie (that was Ponyo) but it still had a different feel to it, probably since it was so fantastical.

2.) Who was your favorite character and why?
- Haku. Cause why not like the only young guy in the movie who happens to be the spirit of a river?

3.) What did you think of the character design?
- Very cool. True to the Japanese style? I don't know. I just liked it.

4.) What part of the movie do you think was strongest?
- The emotions and the theme/meaning behind the story. Courage, remembering and forgetting, love and friendship.

5.) How does it compare to you to other Ghibli movies if you've seen any?
- It's probably my second-favorite Ghibli movie, mostly because I really fell in love with Howl and the story in Howl's Moving Castle. But I think it was probably better than the many others I watched, though Arrietty and Marnie were close after Spirited Away.

(Ah, oops. I just realized this discussion was posted almost a month ago. :smt003 Oh well.)
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