Studio Ghibli/Analysis
Realistic Fantasy
Immersive Realism
It's no secret that animation is a very different medium than live action. Unlike live action, where actions such as standing and running come naturally, in animation nothing is done for free. Everything that's on screen is something that a person has to manually put in. A person cannot just stand, someone must rig or draw them to stand, and that process is expensive and costs a lot. You'll definitely see running and standing in animation, because they are inherently human actions; it is difficult to create a work without them.
But what about the minute details, such as dewdrops on a blade of grass, or a plastic bottle floating in the nearby stream? They don't matter that much, but is still essential in creating a realistic experience.
Or what about a girl tapping the heels of her shoe to make sure it's on tight? Or Cast of Snowflakes style unique background characters going around their daily businesses?
Or realistic refraction in a pair of glasses?
Or accurate violin and piano playing?
Almost every single animation studio leaves these details out, because without them, you can still have a coherent story. It doesn't matter if someone in a band is hitting the right keys, what matters is that they physically stand on the stage itself. A large chunk of the plot will be missing if the characters somehow cannot stand on the stage, but if their piano sounds a 'E' when they hit a 'C#', most audience members won't notice. Because animation is so expensive, only the bare necessitated details are drawn, with the occasional Animation Bump for intense fight scenes when the studio wants to impress the audience. There's no point impressing audience members via these details, as most will simply miss them. It's easy to sit in awe at a well animated fight, but to pick up on these sublime details require a conscious effort to look for them.
As with all things, there is an exception to this. Can you guess what it is? You're on their page! It's Studio Ghibli, in case you can't be bothered to look at the page title.
Part of what makes Studio Ghibli so special is their careful attention to detail. See all the blue links above? Those reference the films which incorporate those details. These details create an immersive, realistic feeling world. They signify to the audience that this is their world the film inhibits, that these details mean the film takes part in the real world, instead of a constructed reality. It's hard to get invested in a media with no solid or tangible rules, as Deus Ex Machinas can run rampant, but establishing rules make the world much more immersive. These details establish rules of the world. Most of all, they establish physical details of the world, details that every audience member is already used to. Thus, although the audience may not consciously realise it, subconsciously they are being pulled into the film, and being immersed in the wonderful world of a Ghibli film.
The Powers of Animation
Live action has a lot of constrants. Most importantly, you have to worry about making things look good and realistic. Since live action is the real world, the physics from our reality apply to it, and its highly detailed nature means that any fantastical element will have to be equally as detailed, and follow the rules of reality. It's difficult to make a work without falling into the Uncanny Valley. While it makes a work more immersive, due to the realism and detail, it comes with the problem that there's less things which can be conveyed without it looking wrong. Just try to imagine any one of Pixar's films with realistic characters. Do you really want to see a live action Woody or 22? Similarly, do you want to see a live action Totoro or Ponyo? They'll look terrifying! That's why they're characters in animated works, instead of live action.
In animation, due to its abstraction, the only limit is the skill of the artist. The mortal constraints of the real world are thrown off, and the animator is free to do whatever they choose, leading to techniques like Deranged Animation. Because of this, a lot more can be portrayed with animation than in live action. The fantastic films make the medium as a whole great for kids, who are not interested in the drama of love or everyday tribulations at work. They want to go on an adventure, and animation, with its vibrant colours and expressive characters, takes them on this journey.
Any skilled animation studio knows how to fully take advantage of their medium. This includes Studio Ghibli, who tends to stick to more mundane elements. Live action can make a teen drama involving someone learning to write, but can live action equally depict the fantasy dream sequences within the story, the sequences with towering structures and abstract colours?
Putting it Together
What happens if you combine both the realism of live action with the limitless potential of animation? You get a Ghibli production.
The realistic details draws the viewers in, and subconsciously makes them think that the film's world is their real life. Yet, a Ghibli production clearly is not real life: there's flying witches and pigs and castles and forest spirits and dragons! Yet the details within the story convinces the reader that the film is real life. Thus, Ghibli combines the two best parts of both live action and animation, combining the unique abilities from each medium.
Greenery
Look at a Ghibli movie, and one of the most striking things is just how much greenery are in their works. From entire works surrounded by lush environments, to a simple tree in the background, Ghibli absolutely packs their works filled with trees, grass, flowers, and nature. This is both used to create an aestheically pleasing environment and to delivery many a Green Aesop.
The colour green is associated with nature, and nature's massive forests serve as an escape from the busy city life. In the forest, the constant loud noises of the road are replaced with nature. Remember that as human beings, we evolved from nature itself before moving into artifically created cities, so the return to nature is the return to our roots. Studio Ghibli has embraced this return. Although most of their works take place in the city, they always feature lush greenery; greenery serving as a smaller sample of a large forest. Because of this return, their works are much more pleasing, with plants delivering a sense of peace -- a sense enhanced by their gentle animation style and calm soundtracks. This gentle embrace is one of the features unique to Ghibli. Everyone enjoys a well animated fight scene, but that's just spectacle. There's nothing to think about after the fight is over, but with Ghibli's approach, you'll think about returning to the grass and forest long after a film has concluded, creating a well defined, memorable mood.
Of course, the world as a whole is facing trouble in the future, and the very greenery Ghibli romanticise is being threatened. After establishing that forests are a calm and secluded place for reflection, they demonstrate that losing the forest is a bad thing. The previous point only helps here; who would want to lose something that's portrayed as being such a beautiful and wonderful place? Whereas the previous point was all implicit, left up to the audience, this point is explicit, and many films go out of their way to implement a Green Aesop.
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