Studio Ghibli’s Ex-Animator Baffles After Identifying Dish From ‘Spirited Away’
Image via Studio Ghibli
A former animator who worked on Studio Ghibli’s 2001 film Spirited Away has revealed some insights about the movie after the studio released 400 images from its famous movies for public use.
Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who worked at the company for 18 years, took to Twitter to reveal secrets on the scenes he worked on in the movie. In a series of tweets, he told fans that Spirited Away was the first film he worked on, and naturally “researched a variety of things” on it.
The translated tweet reads, “Spirited Away was my first feature film so though I was nervous I researched a variety of things as I drew. For the part where Haku is fed the dango, we all interacted with a large-breed dog and observed the movements.”
This explanation gave fans a better insight on the movements between Chihiro and Haku in his dragon form.
Yonebayashi also revealed the dish that Chihiro’s father ate before she landed in a strange world filled with spirits. “It was written on the storyboard that the soft, flabby food the dad eats is the stomach of a coelacanth,” he said. “Haku moves quickly and stops suddenly so there aren’t a lot of key frames, making it super simple. Chihiro is trembling and nervous, so there are a lot of key frames, making it a pain.”
Fans of the film were blown away when they found out it was a fish’s stomach, as many thought it was either a lamb’s stomach or a Taiwanese street food called ba-wan.
Yonebayashi said that the original idea “wasn’t written in the storyboard” but in the original layout drafted by director Miyazaki.
ジブリが自由につかっていいということなので、自分が原画をやったところを。
— 米林宏昌 (@MaroYonebayashi) September 18, 2020
千尋は長編の原画初だったので緊張しつつ、いろいろ研究しながら描きました。ハクにダンゴを食べさせるところはみんなで大型犬に触れながら動きを観察したなあ。 pic.twitter.com/Q4MRJpB7hs
お父さんが食べてるブヨブヨした食べ物はシーラカンスの胃袋と絵コンテに書いてありました。
— 米林宏昌 (@MaroYonebayashi) September 19, 2020
ハクはシュッと動いてピタッと止まるので原画が少なくて楽チン。千尋はビクビクしてるので原画が多くて大変。
What is that? pic.twitter.com/JOqCwVYSmt
— 🇬🇧Name Your Hero?_ _ _🏴 (@HyruleIsEVIL) May 11, 2020
どうやら絵コンテには書いてないようです…宮崎監督が描かれたレイアウトに書いてあったのかなあ？ちなみに原画よりは3倍くらいプルンプルンに修正された。
— 米林宏昌 (@MaroYonebayashi) September 19, 2020
[via Sora News 24, cover image via Studio Ghibli]
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