Spirited Away remains one of Studio Ghibli's most popular and enduring classics, fascinating anime fans both young and old, and now an enterprising fan has recreated the film's most iconic track as a musical Rube-Goldberg machine.
Enbiggen's machine begins with a No-Face figurine swallowing a golden marble and follows the marble as it bounces off strategically placed xylophone keys, tapping out the most recognizable melody from Spirited Away's soundtrack. The machine also features iconic imagery from the film like the Susuwatari (or soot sprites) and the train protagonist Chihiro takes to visit the witch Zeniba.
Directed and written by critically-acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away was released in 2001 and stars Rumi Hiiragi (Ponyo, From Up on Poppy Hill) as Chihiro and Miyu Irino (A Silent Voice, Haikyu!!) as the river spirit Haku. The movie went on to win several prestigious awards, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002, becoming the first (and only) non-English-language film to win the award. It also held the record for the highest-grossing film in Japanese history until Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train surpassed it in 2020.
Spirited Away's score was composed and conducted by Joe Hisaishi, a frequent collaborator with Miyazaki who also worked on the music for Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Princess Mononoke. It was performed by the New Japan Philharmonic and like the movie itself, the score received recognition from multiple prominent institutions. It won the 17th Japan Gold Disk Award for Animation Album of the Year, the 56th Mainichi Film Competition Award for Best Music and the Tokyo International Anime Fair's Best Soundtrack Award in 2001.
Enbiggen's musical Rube-Goldberg machine highlights Spirited Away and Studio Ghibli's enduring popularity and influence in the anime community, but it isn't the only recent development that spotlights the studio's strong legacy. For example, the wife-and-husband team Whip Sugar recently reimagined the giant but gentle robot from Laputa: The Castle in the Sky as a delicate sugar cookie. Moreover, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Del Monico Books have released a catalog of Miyazaki's never-before-seen production artwork and the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan was saved by a crowdfunding campaign earlier this year.
Studio Ghibli fans can stream Spirited Away on HBO Max alongside other classic films from the animation studio like When Marnie Was There, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, From Up on Poppy Hill, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Pom Poko and Porco Rosso.
Source: TikTok