Love for Studio Ghibli and Why Little Girls Should Grow Up with It

Sophie

Before Pixar ever gave us Mr. Fredricksen, Studio Ghibli gave us Sophie xD

Okay, Sophie isn’t really an old woman, but she looks like one for a big chunk of the film, and it doesn’t matter that she looks like an oba-chan, she will do what it takes to get things done!

Also, how funny is that scene in which both old women have to go up all those stairs?

Ponyo

Can we just say Ponyo is such a troublemaker?

This little fish child, Miyazaki’s version of The Little Mermaid, gets things into motion. Unlike the Little Mermaid, Ponyo gives herself the legs she wants and causes all the mayhem on her own. Ponyo is like “pish-posh, Ursula. I don’t need your magic, I got my own to make me look kind of… human-like.

Arrietty

Ghibli continued with its exploration of the coming of age story with Arrietty, which shows us an Arrietty full of energy and ready to explore without any fear!

Having said that, I am mighty excited with the release of the upcoming Pixar’s Brave, for which they recently released the first teaser. It shouldn’t make me this excited, but as you can see… little girls have little to play with.

Your turn, who were you pretending to be when you were a kid?

Can you find other female heroes in animation?

Guys, if you had daughters whom would you wish they would look up to?

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

21 Responses

  1. Juan Barquin says:

    This entire feature sums up everything I love about Studio Ghibli. Even though I’m a man, one of my favorite things in film is seeing female characters that can be a positive influence for people everywhere, and they ALWAYS deliver with this. I could never not love them, especially Hayao Miyazaki and his wonderful characters :’)

    • amy says:

      @Juan Barquin, I was watching the Chinese channel a few weeks ago, and they were talking to this Hunan Opera singer known for her famous interpretation of Mulan, so they got to Disney’s version of Mulan and the female judges were like “yeah, the younger generation knows just Disney’s Mulan in which she leaves the army, gets together with Shang and lives happily ever after” – I was like “that is soooo right”.

      I really wished I could have grown up with Studio Ghibli animation, but alas – not possible. I love Disney and all, but princesses… sighs, they left so much to be desired.

  2. Roxanne says:

    LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE Studio Ghibli and I wholeheartedly agree. I grew up with Disney. Quite literally. Disney movies taught me english since back then there weren’t that many spanish dubs. In fact anime came here in Spanish before ANYTHING American did. I remember watching Dragon Ball and Ranma 1/2 every sunday in spanish xD then having to watch The Little Mermaid in english.

    Although I love Disney and it’s timeless princesses I do agree that they aren’t so much heroines as they are the very embodiment of social constructs for girls. It’s all well and good, dreaming of something bigger, fighting for that dream, until the prince comes along to make it all better and remind the princess she’s still a girl and she shouldn’t aspire to more than being married to an influential man >_> Yes Little Mermaid and Aladdin I am squinting my eyes at you.

    The Ghibli girls are true role models. Girls who take their stand against the odds, facing their own fears and coming out victorious! I think that’s why most of Miyazaki’s heroines are little girls. They’re pure. They’re yet untouched by the malice of social stratification. That very purity leads them to conquer the world on their own, with their ideals and without hesitating. No character represents this more than Chihiro in Spirited Away. Smart, brave, loud, committed and quite patient. Must haves in this day and age for little girls and little big girls ;)

    • amy says:

      @Roxanne, wow. Serious? I can’t imagine Disney without the Latin America Spanish dub. I don’t mind it much for the +90s films, but films like Fox and the Hound and Sword in the Stone in L.A. Spanish it just clicks something in my brain.

      Oh don’t get me started on Ariel xD and the whole – but they just met! How can they be already living together when she doesn’t even talk… LOL

      And it’s also not so much Disney’s fault either… I was reading the Grimm fairy tales, and every time there was a princess in the story she would be describe as “good daughter, fair and very beautiful”. To be very honest, I was disappointed in the collection (even if bound in leather-ish) – I’d rather watch The Storyteller. xD

      • Roxanne says:

        @amy, At least the very early 90s films here in Puerto Rico weren’t in Spanish. But our history with the USA is very charged with the whole ‘Americanization’ philosophy. So maybe they didn’t want to bother with us *rolls eyes* I do remember when I saw Hercules I decided to watch it in Spanish ’cause Ricky Martin did the voice-over xD And I LOVE all the Toy Story and Shrek movies in Spanish. Ten times as hilarious as their English versions.

        Well those fairytales -were- written by men in a very conservative time. Or should I say a much more conservative time. It’s no surprise their fairytales for girls would be a “how to behave like a lady” guide in disguise.

      • Roxanne says:

        @amy, Ok, LOL. I was just watching Bo Burnham’s stand-up comedy show in Netflix. He talks about the Disney Princesses xD He’s like “Disney teaches kids great things. Like in Cinderella. Doesn’t matter where you came from, how poor you are… as long as you’re incredibly hot!” Hahahahaha

        • amy says:

          @Roxanne, I was checking out IMDb and there were a lot of discussions on who the first Disney feminist is xD and a lot of counterattacks when people said Belle was a feminist, and then people would say that she suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. LOL

          Or that Ariel was a feminist… just a reckless and silly one! But it’s okay because she was a teenager xD

          But it’s true… Disney teaches us we have to be super hot, if we’re ugly… or old, we’re the bad ones in the movie. Like in Telenovelas. Once your usual first leading lady is past her prime, she starts getting the bad woman characters.

  3. ghost says:

    “A male is recognised as an adult when he has a job, an occupation. For a woman, her physical presence itself makes her a character, but a man needs to have this social occupation or some kind of status, or some kind of fate — something that you can’t see.
    […]
    I wish I could make another film with an eight or nine year-old boy hero. Boys, they sometimes end up with a tragic existence in this world. It’s a very hard, tough place for boys to live now.”

    Seems like Miyazaki is going against your train of thoughts on his interview with Empire.

  4. Camiele says:

    OH MY GOD TRINI WAS MY IDOL!!!! I didn’t know she died. Now I’m all sad and, yet again, late to the party. My Disney idol/girl-crush was Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. I mean, she was just the world’s sexiest badass… you know, except for the whole falling in love with the enemy thing… HaHa.

    Other than that, I really was kinda into pretending to be the guys, hanging out with them and such. I liked the fiesty girls, but I can’t say I was too put out by the princesses. I mean, just their lives were interesting to me, but anyway. Yup, Studio Ghibli will always be the shit! Disney needs to catch up… HaHa.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, Trini was awesome. I was a Power Rangers fan until the very end of the Zordon era, so I found out fairly early on that she had passed away. Since those days, I’ve made peace with the pink.

      I’ve actually become a really big fan of Japanese entertainment because they build up their female stars better than in Hollywood, I think. Even though I’m aware both have the same shortcomings when they reach a certain age. I heard there’s a lot of female centric films and shows in Japan because women are the ones choosing what to watch. xD

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, DAMN RIGHT!!! HaHA. I mean, every film industry is pretty transparent about what they want: to make money. Whoever has the most disposable income/whoever’s spending the most disposable income is who the market’s going to cater to. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know too much about Japanese culture, but it seems to me that women have one of the highest disposable incomes in that country, thus women want to see other women in powerful positions. I think Japan may, in fact, get that point a bit better than Hollywood does.

        I wish I could say that I made peace with the pink (not as a colour, but as a Ranger… she was annoying as hell!) However, I stopped after the Mighty Morphins. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the ONLY Power Rangers… HaHa.

        • amy says:

          @Camiele, well… that’s something else. I don’t think women in Japan have a high disposable income, people just… expect men to care for the family, so whatever women have they get to keep for themselves. In general, women have REALLY sucky rights in Japan, at least in terms of work – this is the reason why there’s such a demographic crisis.

          Women don’t want to get married or have babies any longer because they know that after that, there’s nothing for them. If Japan decided to fix that and give incentives, they could begin tackling this population crisis.

          But in entertainment, actresses are stars… like, STARS. They’re not there to be the sidekick of a male idol. A film gets to be an “X Female Star” vehicle.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, also… as ghost pointed above in that Miyazaki interview, it doesn’t seem like he intended to make all these female characters, but his audience kinda demanded it.

  5. Camiele says:

    @amy, Wow. I didn’t realize the dynamics of the culture. That’s actually some heavy shit in the context of the film industry. When you take into account how influential it seems these female stars are, thinking about how women are treated is quite an interesting conversation to have.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, yeah – like I said in the post… women are expected to take on “female jobs” such as nurse or secretaries and find a man when they reach a reasonable marriageable age, and then they’re expected to have babies and forget their careers to tend their families.

      Then again, with Japan’s changes in focus – I heard they are changing the educational system to one that looks outside, meaning more focus on outside cultures and emphasis on basic knowledge and communication with other cultures… I might give young girls the opportunity to expand. After all, ;P girls are GREAT when it comes to learning languages and having to communicate. LOL

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, This is completely true. The times are a-changing. It seems like in some countries, for the better while others are still a little back assward in terms of their interest in other cultures.

  1. October 28, 2013

    […] I have very, VERY strong feelings about Pixar and Disney’s latest because Brave is the first Disney princess movie that isn’t about a princess who NEEDS TO end up with a prince [1]. […]

  2. November 5, 2013

    […] I take it back, what I said about Mulan in my Why Little Girls Should Grow Up with Studio Ghibli post. At least when we talk about this film and not the subsequent Mulan […]

  3. July 12, 2014

    […] A tear literally rolled down my left cheek while watching this trailer for Brave for the first time. I mean, you must understand how I must have felt with my comments when the first teaser came out and with my post on why I love Hayao Miyazaki’s work on Studio Ghibli. […]

  4. April 12, 2017

    […] thanks to Sophie) or the race on the castle stairs between Sophie and the Witch. The former joins a long line of enterprising Miyazaki heroines, who may not be “feminists” but they’re also far from the cutesy […]

Leave a Reply to RoxanneCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.