A Comparative Study of Christopher Vogler's Heroic Travel Pattern in Miyazaki and Disney Renaissance Animations A Case Study of The little Mermaid, The beauty and the beast- My Neighbor Totoro and The Spirited away

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Animation, Faculty of Cinema and Theatre, Art University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Painting, Faculty of Art, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

3   Assistant Professor, Department of Animation, Faculty of Cinema and Theatre, Art University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Christopher Vogler’s hero’s journey, inspired by and adapted from Joseph Campbell’s renowned “Monomyth” is a well-known template and reference for Hollywood screenwriters and filmmakers. Considering the coincidence of Vogler's collaboration in Disney projects with the formation of what is called the Disney Renaissance and the prominence of this template in recent Disney animations, this article examines the structure of the heroine's journey in two of the most popular Disney Renaissance animations Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) as well as the heroine’s journey in Hayao Miyazaki's two popular animations My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and The Spirited Away (2001).  The intent of this comparison is to find how Vogler’s hero’s journey apply to these different animations and also to examine the differences between the journey of Hayao Miyazaki's heroines and Disney's Princesses.
This research is a descriptive analytical research. Upon defining each heroine’s journey, this article shows that despite the adaptation of Vogler’s Hero’s journey structure in Hayao Miyazaki's narrative, the non-patriarchal nature of the Miyazaki world stands in contrast to Disney’ patriarchal world where men are the position of power and judge female characters by patriarchal virtues such as obedience and beauty and don’t approve of heroine’s independent and adventurous nature. The existence of complementary female characters in Miyazaki’s works are powerful, independent and kind, and influence the heroine's journey in a positive way while in Disney’s animations the absence of such characters is prominent and the heroine is surrounded by male characters. The lack of traditional antagonists in Miyazaki’s stories allow every character to put on the shadow’s mask and take it off at any turn of the story. Both Disney animations have an antagonist whom wears the shadow’s mask throughout the story and dies at the end of it. Miyazaki’s female protagonists are active throughout their journey while Disney’s Belle and Ariel can be considered passive during the end battle. Miyazaki’s characters undergo greater evolution and growth in comparison to the Disney’s characters who only have minor changes. Miyazaki’s complex world in which character’s desires and journeys are not as obvious and simple as Disney Heroine’s desires, which are sung out at the beginning of the story. The diversity of the Miyazaki’s heroines’ elixirs in contrast to Disney’s elixir of romantic love, a love that would surely result in marriage, are some of the factors that distinguish the journey of Miyazaki's female protagonists from Disney’s heroines. The use of quiet climaxes in Miyazaki’s animations as opposed to Disney's action climaxes in which there is a spectacular scene with a physical fight resulting to shadow’s demise creates a different experience for the audience and distinguishes Hayao Miyazaki's character, narrative and the world from Disney’s black and white world of fairytale qualities.

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References

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Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts & Music
Volume 27, Issue 3
September 2022
Pages 55-63

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