In this essay I will be discussing the similarities and differences between the character Alice from Walt Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' and the character Chihiro (Sen) from Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away. These characters are both of comparable ages and their personalities share many qualities which go through the same metamorphosis towards the end of the films. Both characters experience new, exciting and even dangerous situations that challenge them more than they could ever have imagined before. Miyazaki's typical Shojo character is notably independent and active, courageously confronting the
variety of obstacles before her in a manner that might well be described as stereotypically masculine, as opposed to the classic Shojo character, which tends to be passive or dreamy with ultrafemininity. However, Disney's typical
female character is usually not nearly as forthright as a Miyazaki character and they tend to be more passive and less 'fiery'. The character Alice from Alice in Wonderland seems to be one of the exceptions.
Miyazaki Airport (KMI/RJFM)
English: A close-up photo of famous japanese anima...
Miyazaki Airport (KMI/RJFM)Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away came for many with built-in expectations. After the exhausting but highly successful production of Princess Mononoke (1998), the director announced his retirement from filmmaking. It
was a promise he reneged on when meeting the ten-year old daughter of a friend. This girl provided the inspiration for Chihiro, the little heroine at the centre of Spirited Away, a film aimed at ten-year old girls but universal enough in its appeal to break every box office record on its home turf, going on to not only become the highest grossing film of all time in Japan, but attaining that
status in record time.
What struck Miyazaki about the real-life girl who served as the inspiration for Chihiro was not only the fact that she seemed jaded to the attention her parents were giving her (something he subsequently...