This document is a compare and contrast essay analyzing the animated films Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Mizayaki. The essay notes several key similarities between the films: both were directed and written by Mizayaki, produced by Studio Ghibli, use traditional hand-drawn animation, have 10-year old female main characters who go on adventures in fantasy worlds, feature themes of family and adventure, and have happy endings. The essay concludes that while very different stories, the two films contain numerous coincidental similarities likely due to being created by the same visionary author, Hayao Mizayaki.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Woo Wen Jian (KN)
STUDENT ID NO: 0315123
FILMS SELECTED: -Spirited Away (HayaoMizayaki, 2001)
-My Neighbor Totoro (HayaoMizayaki, 1988)
WORD COUNT: 731 words
ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2013

2. There is no doubt when they said that animated film is one of the greatest
invention ever created by human. There are a lot of different types of ways to create an
animated film, from tradition hand drawn method, stop motion animation, computer
animation and a lot more. Animated films like Spirited Away (2001) and My Neighbor
Totoro (1988) were one of the finest animated films ever produced with merely
traditional hand-drawn method. In these two films, there are quite an amount of
similarities that you could dig from within them.
First and foremost, let’s talk about the author and artist who had produced such
astonishing films. The person who wrote and drew the films were the same person,
HayaoMizayaki. Mizayaki is a Japanese animation film artist as well as a director that
had created more than 10 animated films until now. Both of the films were also
produced by the same company, Studio Glibi, where Mizayaki is the co-founder of the
company. With the skills of Mizayaki, both of the films have a resemblance that could
differ themselves with other animated films, which is both of them are produced by
traditional hand-drawn method while most of the other animated films during that time
already started using computer animation method.
Next up, Both of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro have almost the same
genre flowing in between them. The two films share the commonality genre of “family”,
“adventure” as well as “fantasy”. The storylines of the films were about a 10 years of kid
which was travelling with their families and met a series of unlucky events that
somehow lead the two kids to a certain extend of adventure. Both of the kids in the two
movies are then need to face fantasy that they had never ever met before in their lives
in order to help their families members out from the tragedies that they were facing.

3. Another similarities of the two films are the main characters in the films. Both of
the main characters in the two films are a girl which aged 10 years old. Chihiro is the
name for the main character in Spirited Away while Satsuki is the name for the main
character in My Neighbor Totoro. Both of the girls have some common traits too, which
is helpful, adventurous, high curiosity, eager and much more. There were scenes where
the two of them shows that they have the helpful traits. In Spirited Away, Chihiro
entered the spirit world and met a boy named haku, who later is a boy that was cursed
by Yubaba and lost his memories (evil witch), Chihiro provide a series of help in order to
break that curse for Haku. While in My Neighbor Totoro, Satsuki helped the clan of
Susuwatari, the travelling soot, to have a place to stay in their house when Satsuki and
families moved into the new home.
Lastly, the ways how the two films had ended have something in common too
where both films had happy ending. In Spirited Away, Haku turned into dragon form and
flies Chihiro back to the bathhouse from Zeniba (good witch, twin sister of Yubaba)’s
hut. In the mean of flying, They flew over Kohaku river where Chihiro once almost
drowned and were saved by Haku who were used to be the guardian of Kohaku river.
Soon after Chihiro remembered the incident and Haku’s true identity, Haku immediately
freed from Yubaba’s curse and saved Chihiro’s parent which became a pair of pigs
under Yubaba’s spell as well as restored them back to human later with lost memories
of the whole incident. While in My Neighbor Totoro, Satsuki went to find her lost sister,
Mei. She then looked for help from the Totoros by entering to the Realm of Totoro. With
the help of Totoro, they managed to get to the highest tree of the forest in order to look

4. for Mei. Once they saw her, Totoro jumped towards Mei and they were sent back to
their home by Catbus, a spirit bus.
To summarize, there were quite an amount of similarities in the two films that I’ve
compared. The coincidence of having those similarities might be because of the two
animated films were created by the same author. Anyway, the two animated films are
awesome films in film history which contain good storylines that were created by
HayaoMizayaki.