Spirited Away took the world by storm with its theatrical release and won Best Animated Feature at the 2003 Academy Awards. However, before the global acclaim and accolades, Spirited Away wasn’t always easy to bring to American audiences and it certainly wasn’t straightforward. A lot of hard work and advocacy came from American partners of Hayao Miyazaki.
One of them was John Lasseter, the former Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, who played a huge part in convincing Walt Disney Pictures to buy the rights and took personal responsibility for the English dub.
According to Hayao Miyazaki, the creative office had heavily advocated for Spirited Away to come to an American audience. The act obviously paid off as Spirited Away became the first hand-drawn, Japanese anime and non-English-language animated film. The two became admirers of each other through this partnership.
Lasseter’s Role In Aiding Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away
The release of Spirited Away in 2001 was pivotal in the anime and film industry. It was a phenomenon like no other with Hayao Miyazaki at the helm running the ship and becoming one of the best directors of all time with its release. The story of Chihiro and how she navigates a new world with the help of Haku is amazing and unique but combined with the visuals, it was a masterpiece.
John Lasseter recognized the genius of Studio Ghibli and has previously mentioned that whenever he is looking for inspiration, he watches Miyazaki’s films. Lasseter is responsible for great movies like the Toy Story series and Cars. Miyazaki claims in this interview that the Pixar director was directly responsible for Spirited Away making it to an American audience:
[Lasseter] turned into a human bulldozer. Without him I don’t think we’d be sitting here.
It shows a certain solidarity between two of the greatest animators and a bridge to connect the gap between a global audience and Japanese animation. Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki have come far in convincing how unique and beautiful anime narratives are. Their legacy is unmatched but globalization is thanks to the efforts of John Lasseter who recognized how wonderful his films are.
Spirited Away’s Success And Where Miyazaki Is Now
The Pixar director’s so-called bulldozing has helped with Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki’s popularity. The Spirited Away director was supposed to retire in that year itself but the man still goes strong, with his most recent film, The Boy and The Heron. Naturally, it was a success but would Miyazaki be where he is without the helping hand? In Japan, maybe but globally it’s thanks to Walt Disney Pictures.
However, Miyazaki’s legacy is all on his own. The reason why Lasseter wanted to buy the rights so badly was because of Miyazaki’s genius and the beauty of his films. No matter if the films became a hit globally, Miyazaki is undeniably one of the greatest filmmakers who doesn’t need an Oscar or an American audience to be validated.
Spirited Away is available on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
