Spirited Away Stage Play Images Show Gorgeous Life-Size Puppets
Exclusive images of the world premiere of the Spirited Away play reveal giant puppets and impressive production value. Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed Spirited Away to be animated by Studio Ghibli, and Toho released the film in 2001. Regarded as one of the greatest animated films ever made, it quickly received overwhelming acclaim, with critics praising Studio Ghibli's spectacular animation, Joe Hisaishi's score, and the innovative storyline. It is the only hand-drawn, foreign-language animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to date.
Miyazaki developed the film to give his family's young female friends an animated heroine they could admire. Inspired by various structures in Tokyo, he crafted the enchanting story that sees ten-year-old Chihiro (voiced by Rumi Hiiragi) enter a spirit world to try and save her parents from their magical transfiguration into pigs by a witch. A spirit named Haku (Miyu Irino) joins her in her adventure, alongside the creature No-Face (Akio Nakamura), who has become synonymous with the film. Spirited Away recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, just in time for the premiere of its previously announced, live-action stage adaptation.
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New images released from the premiere show the cast among intricate sets right out of the film and performing next to life-size puppets depicting some of the more fantastical characters, like Haku (in dragon form) and the witch Yubaba. SoraNews24 covered the opening night production, which took place at Tokyo's Imperial Theater on March 2, 2022. The site explains that the stage play employs a "double cast" system, a Japanese theater practice that sees two performers playing the same
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