Spirited Away: A Hero's Journey

Great Essays
Spirited Away is a 2001 anime by Studio Ghibli that follows ten year old Chihiro. This film was picked up by Disney and redubbed in English the English was released in the U.S. in 2002. The main plot of the film is Chihiro trying to save her parents who have been turned into pigs. While it might not be as well-known as Oedipus or even Harry Potter this film is a perfect example of the hero’s journey and almost all of the stages can be seen throughout this movie. Spirited away is a great film at a PG rating to have children watch a hero’s journey.
The story starts with her and her parents driving to their new home her father takes a wrong turn and they end up in what they believe to be an abandoned theme park. Though Chihiro gets a bad feeling
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Her parents are so hungry that they cannot help themselves but eat it. Chihiro runs off and finds a bath house that appears to be working there she meets a boy who tells her she must get out of park before sun down. Chihiro runs back to find her parents have eaten all the food and are now pigs Chihiro attempts to get back to her parents car but can’t because a river has covered her path back. Chihiro must find a way to save her parents and make it back to the outside world which she is able to do after a long adventure.
Chihiro’s journey starts when she enters the theme park though she was hesitant about entering she is more hesitant about staying alone at the car and follows after her parents this is Chihiro’s call to adventure though she did not want to go into the park she was too afraid to stay alone at the car so she follows them into the theme park. Chihiro’s parents then decide to eat the food
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If Kamajii does not offer her a job and turns her away she will not be able to go back to her normal life. Her parents are now pigs and she must do what she must to save them. Soon after that a woman comes in and brings Kamajii dinner when she asks why there is a human he says that she is his granddaughter and that she would like a job. The woman, who we soon find out is named Lin, knows this is not true but takes Chihiro back inside with her to go see Yubaba, a witch and the owner of the bathhouse, she is the one who can truly give Chihiro a job. On her way to get to Yubaba’s, office at the top of the bath house, Chihiro must hide from all the spirts because as of this point she doesn’t belong in the spirit world. This is the first of the road of trials for Chihiro though she is half way to her destination but she still has much more to figure out before she can get there. The second part of Chihiro’s road of trials is meeting with Yubaba and convincing her to give her a job which Chihiro was able to do at a price. When Chihiro signed the contract to work at the bath house Yubaba changed Chihiro’s name to Sen so that it would make it harder for her to ever find her way home. The third and final trial in the road of trials that Chihiro must

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