I have been a Miyazaki fan for quite some time now and have been way more intrigued by his animation than anything Disney put out. This could be due to the newness of his “style” to me and that I was just burnt out on Disney, but I am beginning to think he simply has a better grip on characterization (or at the very least is not as concerned with frightening children).  His animations are hand drawn like in the old days of Disney before CG became their modus operandi (especially after syncing up with Pixar). Everything about the two animation studios seemed so very different–Disney picked well known stories and made them suitable for children. Miyazaki picked stories unheard of (at least in the West) or novels that aren’t ragingly popular (Howl’s Moving Castle). I always watched these films in Japanese with the English subtitles on so I was therefore surprised when I learned Disney does the dubbing for the English versions of Miyazaki’s films. I set out to rewatch the films in English and was deeply displeased with Disney’s maiming of a Miyazaki film with their obvious attempts as “Disney-ification”.

I was deeply disturbed by the liberties Disney took with Spirited Away. To be brief, it’s a story of a young girl whose family stumbles into a world of gods and now she must save them as they have been captured. Along the way she develops a love interest with a river god. However, this god is clearly very, very old (he does not look it, but it is implied) and the girl is very very young. In Disney’s dubbing they reworked certain dialogue and got voice actors of such extremely different ages that the god came off as a mentor to a whiney, frightened girl. They turned her into a stereotypical Disney female protagonist (supremely incompetent, yet somehow always succeeds–usually with a lot of outside help [i.e. Snow white has 7 dwarves protecting her yet she still manages to mess things up until a prince can save her, Princess Jasmine runs away against the better judgment of a Tiger and almost gets her hand chopped off until Abu and Aladdin save her--this theme of getting in trouble and being saved happens over and over]).  Miyazaki’s characters are complex–the female protagonist in Spirited Away wants to save a friend, save her family, and work hard toward harmony with others. She does all in her power to bring cohesion to the incredibly mixed cast. Disney’s version of her is flat.

As noted in this essay on the Miyazaki vs. Disney debate, Miyazaki attempts to create stories for children and adults with rich story lines while “Disney, on the other hand, seems to be increasingly ignoring the older contingent of its audience to produce films with overly simplistic storylines and gaping plot holes”. When Disney dubbed Spirited Away they took all the spirit out of it and left a hollow caricature in its stead.

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