Teach Your Children How to Avoid Being Eaten by Evil Spirits

Most people my age have never heard the name Hayao Miyazaki, or if they have, it was because of his film, Ponyo, released in 2008. But Miyazaki has had a number of films released in Japan and the United States (which he’s written/produced/directed/animated and any combination of those) since the early sixties.

I first heard of Hayao Miyazaki through my sister, a lover of everything and anything Japanese. She showed me one of his films, Spirited Away (2001), and I instantly fell in love. Unlike Disney and Pixar, Miyazaki’s films have somewhat of a dark sense to them. And by somewhat, I mean some of them are pretty messed up. In a good way, though.

Like in Spirited Away, Chihiro finds herself stuck in another world which includes a bath house for spirits. She sells herself away to the evil witch, Yubaba, to save her parents (who were turned into pigs), and ends up having to save the bath house from an evil spirit, aptly named No Face, that keeps eating the other workers, the whole time trying to make sure her parents aren’t eaten.

It's one of my favorite movies, obviously.

Another one of Miyazaki’s movies that I love is Howl's Moving Castle, whose American version includes the voices of Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, and Josh Hutcherson. This one is a little less dark, but there is a witch that turns a girl into an old woman and a guy who occasionally turns into a bird and something about eating hearts. So yeah.

Then there’s Castle in the Sky (which I’m pretty sure I watched at one point, but can’t remember anything about except for some giant robots covered in plants) and My Neighbor Tortoro (giant fluffy bear-thing? I should really re-watch these).

It’s sort of unfortunate because these are all really great movies that follow absolutely no archetypes, but have their own crazy plot and characters. They have strong themes between the dark events. The thing is, not a lot of people in this country have seen more than one or so of Miyazaki’s movies. Other than Ponyo and maybe Spirited Away (which won Best Animated Feature in 2002), these films are pretty unknown to most Americans.

I can't imagine growing up not seeing his films, but I sort of see why maybe some parents maybe aren't lining up at the video store to buy them so that they can show their kids. Miyazaki films don't have the cookie cutter themes that Disney and Pixar films have: always be yourself, don't judge others, treat them the way you want to be treated. Mostly Miyazaki's films teach children how to avoid being eaten by spirits.