With Ghibli movies finally streaming on HBO Max, it’s a great time to revisit Spirited Away. It’s almost two decades old, but it feels timeless -- here are some of my favorite details and tidbits that have kept me coming back:

(thread)
Something I didn’t notice on my first watch of Spirited Away: When Zeniba projects herself into the bath house, she’s missing an arm (unlike her real self). That’s because the magic paper doll she uses is missing an arm too. It’s magical and logical at the same time.
Spirited Away might be unbelievable fantasy, but Ghibli worked hard to make the world feel grounded and real. For the scene where Chihiro puts her hand in a dragon’s mouth, animators actually went to an animal hospital to study dogs.
The first real sign of magic in the movie comes just after Chihiro steps onto the bridge. When Haku appears, you can see the shadows shifting rapidly behind him as day turns to night unnaturally fast. She broke the seal.

It’s just a tiny touch, but this movie is full of them.
You can follow @TristanACooper.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: