Fantasy Chronotope in Two Animated Children’s Films: Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001)

Marwa Essam Eldin Fahmi

Abstract


The aim of this study is to explore fantasy chronotope as exemplified in the complex spatio-temporal configuration in children’s fantasy films. The notion of fantasy chronotope is revisited to conceptualize the way space and time can interrelate through the in-depth analysis of two portal-quest fantasy films: Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Hayao Miyazaki’s (2001) Spirited Away (2001). The theoretical starting point is to examine the representation of the Alternative World and to articulate the aesthetics of animated children’s films as well. The researcher adopts a comparative/theoretical method to question spatiality in visual media and to analyze spatial practices undertaken by fictional/female narratives within multiple locations. Moreover, Japanese anime has not been studied adequately compared to its North American counterparts such as Disney especially in terms of ethnic/national or gender politics encoded in anime images. The study seeks to establish the two animated films as high fantasy films by presenting a fresh view on fantasy chronotope to examine fantasy—as a genre—not designed or intended to express escapism and childishness because it is simply unrealistic. The study sheds light not only on the significance of animation as a medium that has been considered too trivial for serious research, but also the current study offers a better understanding of how Japanese visual culture has brought about potentially crucial changes in the way the Western perceive Asia.

 


Keywords


Anime; Media theory of animation; Chronotope; Portal-quest fantasy film; Children’s literature

Full Text:

PDF

References


Apter, T. E. (1982). Fantasy literature: An approach to reality. London: Macmillan Press.

Atteber, B. (1986). The fantasy tradition in American literature. Blooming: Indiana University.

Bacherlard, G. (1974). The poetics of space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays (E. Caryl & M. Holquist, Trans.). In M. Holquist (Ed.). Austin: University of Taxes Press.

Beckerman, H. (2003). Animation: The whole story. New York: All Worth Press.

Bell, E., Haas, L., & Sells, L. (1995). From mouse to mermaid: The politics of film, gender and culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Brodwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2004). Film art: An introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, North Carolina: MacFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.

Disney, W. (1951). Alice in Wonderland. Walt Disney Studio, DVD.

Egoff, S. (1981). Thursday’s child: Trends and patterns in contemporary children’s literature. Chicago: American Library Association.

Eisenstein, S. (2006). The Eisenstein collection. In R. Taylor (Ed.). Calcutta: Seagull Books.

Fowkes, K. (2010). The fantasy film. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Gopman, V. (2001). Fantasy. In A. N. Nikolukin (Ed.), Literary encyclopedia of terms and notions (pp.1161-1162). Moscow: Interlvak.

Hu, T.-Y. G. (2010). Frames of anime: Culture and image-building. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Hunt, P. (1990). Criticism, theory and children’s literature. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Hunt, P. (1994). An introduction to children’s literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hunt, P. (2005). Alternative worlds in fantasy fiction-revisited. New Review of Children’s Literature and Liberarian Ship, 11 (2), 163-174.

Hutcheon, L. (2006). Theory of adaptation. New York: Routledge.

Jackson, R. (1993). Fantasy: The literature of subversion. London: Routledge.

Kathleen, K. (Ed.). (1995). Merriam webster’s encyclopedia of literature. Springfield, Mass: Merriam Webster.

Lamarre, T. (2009). The anime machine: A media theory of animation. London & Minnea-Polis: University of Minnesota Press.

Lang, A. (1974). The book of dreams and ghosts. New York: Causeway.

MacWilliams, M. W. (2008). Japanese visual culture: Explorations in the world of Manga and anime. Armonk; NY& London: M. E. Sharpe Press.

Manlove, C. (1983). Impulse of fantasy literature. London: Macmillan Press.

Mathews, K. (2006). Logic and narrative in spirited away. Screen Education, (43), 135-140.

Mathews, R. (2002). Fantasy: The liberation of imagination. London: Routledge.

Mazur, E. M. (Ed.). (2011). Encyclopedia of religion and film. Oxford, England: ABC-CLIO.

Mendlesohn, F. (2008). Rhetorics of fantasy. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.

Miyazaki, H. (1996). Shuppatsuten, 1979-1996 (R. Toyamo, Trans.). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten.

Miyazaki, H. (Dir.). (2001). Spirited away. Studio Ghibli/Buena Vista Intl.

Murphy, R. (2010). Darwin and 1860s children’s literature: Belief, myth or detritus. Journal of Literature and Science, 5(2), 5-21.

Napier, S. (2001). Anime from Akira to princess mononoke: Experiencing contemporary Japanese anime. New York: Palgrave.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s moving castle: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan.

Napier, S. (2006). Matter out of place: Carnival recovery in Miyazaki’s spirited away. Journal of Japanese Studies, 32(2), 287-310.

Nikolajeva, M. (1988). The magic. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International.

Nikolajeva, M. (2000). From mythic to linear time in children’s fiction. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.

Nikolajeva, M. (2003). Fairy tale and fantasy: From archaic to postmodern. Marvels and Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, 17(2), 138-156.

Osmond, A. (2008). Spirited away. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Simmel, G. (1999). Bridge and door. In D. Frisby & M. Feathestone (Eds.), On culture: Selected writings (pp. 170-174). Davis London: Sage.

Soja, E. (1996). Third space: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Oxford: Blackwell.

Stableford, B. (2005). Introduction. Historical dictionary of fantasy literature and arts. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Stam, R. (2005). Literature through film: Realism, magic and the art of adaptation. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Taihei, I. (1953). Japanese art and animated cartoon (F. Tsuruoka, Trans.). The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, 7(2), 217.

Thomas, B. (1976). Walt Disney: An American original. New York: Hyperion Press.

Timmerman, J. H. (1983). Other worlds: The fantasy genre. Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press.

Turner, V. (1981). Social dramas and stories about them. In W. J. Mitchell (Ed.), On narrative. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Walkerdine, V. (2004). Development psychology and the study of childhood. In M. J. Kehily (Ed.), An introduction to childhood studies (pp.96-107). London: Open University Press.

Wells, P. (1997). Hayao Miyazaki: Floating worlds, floating signifiers. Art & Design, 12(3), 22-26.

Wells, P. (1998). Understanding animation. London: Routledge.

Wells, P. (2002). Animation, genre and authorship. London: Wallflower Press.

Worley, A. (2005). Empires of imaginations: A critical survey of fantasy cinema from George Méliès to the Lord of Kings. Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers.

Yasuhiro, Y. (2002). Children of the generation of Harry and Chihiro. Tokyo: AsahiShuppan.

Yoshioka, S. (2008). Heart of Japaneseness: Histroy and nostalgia in Hayao Miyazaki’s spirited away. In M. W. MacWilliams (Ed.), Japanese visual culture: Explorations in the world of manga and anime. Armonk; NY& London: M. E. Sharpe Press.

Zanger, J. (1982). Heroic fantasy and social reality. In R. C. Schlobin (Ed.), The aesthetics of fantasy literature and art (pp.226-236). Notre Dame & Brighton: University of Notre Dame Press & The Harvester Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/9120

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2017 Marwa Essam Eldin Alkhayat

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard

Please send your manuscripts to sll@cscanada.net，or  sll@cscanada.org  for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture