By Trung Manh Quoc Nguyen
Sometimes I found myself perplexed between the movies of Pixar and Ghibli Studio. Both are equally important parts of my childhood and their impacts are still felt by me even now. Although I must admit that I like Pixar movies better (perhaps because I started watching them way earlier), the films of Ghibli Studio are no less highly regarded and, in my opinion, stand as magnificent works of artistic achievement in their own right.
That is why there was a time I used to think about both studios’ methods of success. Having been interested in filmmaking since as far back as I could remember, the first movies I came to for inspiration and references were usually children animations. Their core plot ideas are simple, do not engage in too heavy-headed themes, and their characters are colorful, diversely portrayed yet still relatable. It is my belief that the way we watch children’s animations is a little different from other kinds of movies: We tend to be less judgmental about plots and characters, and just prefer to sit down and be immersed in the new world portrayed on the big screen. When viewed in such a sense, I guess that what I am looking for is not specifically the “methods” of children animated films, but why those films are so enjoyable, and are able to engage us as viewers. It is of my own opinion that the possible explanation can be found in examining the two words “reality” and “magic” – Ghibli movies are constructed around the basis of “magic in reality,” and on the other hand, Pixar is “reality in magic.”
Rarely ever in a Pixar movie do we see dailylife settings. They are instead worlds where cars can talk and act like humans, where toys have a consciousness of their own, where feelings have personalities, and where the dead can play banjos and have a music festival, etc.; in short, anything but what we are directly familiar with. Their creations are out-of-this-world, sometimes even bizarre, but when we look closely, they are in fact not so distant. Seemingly inanimate objects in the Pixar world have human personalities, so they must also have human emotions and in turn are forced to face human problems similar to what we are facing daily. In the first Toy Story (1995), Woody’s jealousy against Buzz Lightyear is not so different from our feelings when our friends got higher scores than us in a test, or when we are left alone in a group of three while the other two just keep chatting to one another. Similarly, in Finding Nemo (2003), Merlin panicking when Nemo was taken away is what all fathers in the world would feel if put into the same circumstances, regardless of whether they are humans or clownfishes. Pixar movies open up magical worlds like we have never seen before, yet we see ourselves within such seemingly strange and unrelatable characters, seeing “reality in magic”.
On the contrary, Ghibli movies not only have very “human” settings, but they are also very nostalgic – they remind us of a time far away, of the peaceful and quiet world where tall trees and green hills still dominated the landscapes instead of towering skyscrapers. I found it interesting that almost all Ghibli movies use children as main characters, especially Miyazaki’s; perhaps because children have much more imagination than adults and therefore are able to “craft” their own magical worlds out of the mundane life. Indeed, the magic we see the most in Ghibli movies is children magic, or, to better put, “childhood magic” – the kind that is absolutely pure and true to heart that the children either discover, stumble in or create themselves. The kind that all of us have had experienced with one way or another, but our memories of them lay buried underneath the modern busy life. Most of the out-of-the-ordinary bits in Whisper of The Heart (1995) are Shizuku’s own “creation” through the process of writing and imagination; Spirited Away (2001) depicts Chihiro’s adventures in the magical world that she “stumbles into”; and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) is the story of how a young witch “discovering” her power on the journey to “discover” herself. Ghibli’s adventures are of children, and the adults, if they play a part at all, are only active in the background. The contrast between the children’s world and that of the adults is shown most noticeably in My Neighbor Totoro (1988), where Totoro is only visible to and only interacts with the two children heroines. One can also argue that the decision to turn Chihiro’s parents into pigs in Spirited Away (2001) is not only to prevent them from participating in Chihiro’s adventure, but to also illustrate a “loss of innocence”. The parents are preoccupied only with eating, totally disregarding the strangeness of the situation they are in, which is already realized by Chihiro from the beginning. The films of Ghibli often end with the children returning to their ordinary life once again, but is it still the same, now that they have experienced the unordinary? Could their reality be the same as ours, or much more magical? Hence my interpretation of “magic in reality.”
Yet, what is most fascinating in this comparison case is also the similarity between the two animation studios: how reality and magic are connected together interchangeably, despite initially being perceived so differently. The case is not “magic in reality” and “reality in magic” anymore, but now is “magic is reality” and vice versa: “reality is magic”. Ghibli movies are most skillful in this aspect, as they seem to create magic out of thin air, where there is nothing unusual. There is a scene in Whisper of The Heart where Shizuku sings her own version of the John Denver’s song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” in a small basement, and soon is joined by a whole “orchestra”; the scene is so upbeat yet still feels so heartfelt and full of emotions that I think Ghibli has created “magical” moments even when there is no actual magic at all. In the same way, Pixar setting their stories in strange worlds but following a perceivable plot line and developing relatable characters is also an effort to turn magic into real life, and in the process makes magic feel more familiar, as they have already had elements of real life in them.
In the end, I guess that is the wonder of children’s animations, even when viewed by adults. They serve as a means for us to escape reality and jump into their magical worlds, yet still remind us that their magic is not something strange and unrelatable, but a part of what we are already so used to. They remind us that, just like magic is familiar, reality is also full of possibilities to create ordinary magic.
The Polyphony 