House and Home: A New World of Animated Films for Families

Last week, my family got together with some family friends to watch the Japanese animated movie, “Spirited Away.”  Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, the movie, which was the highest grossing film in Japanese history, is a beautiful tale about a 10-year-old girl who gets lost in a world of spirits while making the move to a new home. When her parents are turned into pigs by a powerful witch, it is up to her to save them with the help of a boy spirit, a river spirit.

My daughters are both eight and our friends’ daughters are seven and four, and all four of the girls equally love the movie. A plus to the movie is that a young girl is the main protagonist in the film. And, unlike most young women in Disney movies, her main quest is not to don a pretty dress and find a young man to marry — her goal is to save her family and find a way back home from the spirit world. Along the way, she is faced by a variety of spirits and circumstances that could ruin her chances of getting back home.

“Spirited Away” is an English language version of the original Japanese movie and is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Pixar director John Lasseter supervised the English translation of the film. The English language translation is done beautifully; to the average American film viewer, it is hard to tell that the movie wasn’t originally made for American viewers.

My family owns several Miyazki movies, which are wonderful films for families to watch together, especially for families who have watched every Disney movie at least a half dozen times. The movies are something new and fresh to watch together, and are something that’s equally entertaining to kids and adults. Even better, they are available to rent at places like Netflix and Blockbuster.com.

My favorite of Miyazki’s movies is “Ponyo,” a tale about a little fish who is found by a little boy by the seaside. Like the main character in Disney’s “Little Mermaid,” Ponyo comes to love the boy and wishes to become a human girl. After her father finds her and returns her to her underwater world, she makes it back to the little boy, but manages to upset the ocean’s balance (and causes a tsunami) in her struggle to reunite with the little boy and to become human. This American version of the movie includes the voices of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin and Betty White, among others.

One of my daughters’ favorites is “My Neighbor Totoro,” a Miyazki animated film about two young girls who move to rural Japan with their father and befriend several woodland spirits in the forest by their home, including the lovable and larger than life spirit they call “Totoro.” These spirits take the young girls on an amazing journey where, among other things, they take a ride on a large bus that looks like a real, live cat.

And just like with Disney films, there are lot of fun toys and books that accompany these movies. My husband recently purchased large plush Totoros for our daughters, and we have a beautiful book filled with the artwork from Ponyo that we all enjoy reading.