Studio Ghibil's animated classic Spirited Away was released in the United States 15 years ago. Iain Heath, also known as Ochre Jelly, took that as an excuse to make LEGO scenes from the movie to honor filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. He explains each scene, starting with the picture above.
Haku, don't give up!
While Sen is tending to Haku (in dragon form), who is injured from an attack by a swarm of paper shikigami, the mysterious witch Zeniba appears to claim her golden seal.
"Do you know why he became my sister's apprentice? To steal her magic secrets, and now he's stolen my magic too. He's a greedy little thief. There's nothing good about him. Step aside little girl. I'm going to take my seal back from him. There's a spell on the seal, and anyone who steals it will die."
I guess my parents will have to wait
To repay the kindness that Haku showed her, Sen and her new friends make the journey to Swamp Bottom to return the gold seal and ask for Zeniba's forgiveness.
"I've been saving these tickets for 40 years. Now, listen carefully. The train stop you want is called Swamp Bottom. Make sure you get it right. The train used to run in both directions but these days it's a one-way ride. Still want to go?"
Chihiro meets Kamajii, the many-armed boiler room operator, and his army of obedient susuwatari, and is determined to prove herself capable of hard work.
"You can't just take someone else's job. If they don't work, the spell wears off. They turn back into soot. There's no work for you here, got it? Try somewhere else. You soot balls got a problem? Get back to work!"
This marks the end of my exploration of Hayao Miyazaki's classic anime feature Spirited Away. This project that kinda came out of nowhere and then ballooned out of control, yet it was very rewarding to put together, and I even got to try a few things I had not attempted before as a builder.
If you're a fan of the movie, I hope you've enjoyed reminiscing with me. And if you've never see this or any of Miyazaki's other works, I hope maybe this has you sufficiently intrigued to explore them now! You'll be able to see these models up close and personal at forthcoming conventions along the West coast in 2017 and 2018, starting with my home convention, BrickCon, in Seattle this October.
You can see an entire set of these scenes from the movie Spirited Away, with different angles and process shots, at Heath's Flickr album Chihiro's Journey. -Thanks, Iain!
See more posts on Ochre Jelly's LEGO creations.