[DrDetroit]

One thing I've noticed about this movie, over the course of a lot of viewings, is the amount of self-reference in regards to Miyazaki's past work. Now, I had this pretty figured out at one point, but some of it may have slipped.

But take for example the sootballs. I thought this was a direct call to Totoro, because they look very much like the dust spirits that inhabit the new house. So Miyazaki takes those creatures that represent a sort of whimsy and fantasy, and he puts them to work in an ardurous never-ending workday.

The big teddy-bear like Totoro himself I thought was parodied by the Radish Spirit (just because they're the roughly the same size). So he goes from being the mystical spirit with wisdom and geniality, to just a creature of excess with a suggestive loincloth (has he eaten from the fruit of knowledge?? ya, too deep, huh?)

Another thing is the "future-version" character. In a couple of Miyazaki's movies, the hero has a mentor who has a bit more experience, and almost figures as a future version of the hero/heroine. I think that Miyazaki stresses this by having the same voice actor who plays the young hero acting older character as well. The most direct example of this is in Kiki's Delivery Service, where Kiki finds a kindred spirit in Ursula, whose role as artist is sort of an analogy for Kiki's own supernatural powers.

This dynamic is tinkered with, I thought, also in Spirited Away. Lin, Sen's appointed mentor, is like a future version, but one who has learned to survive in the bathhouse. So rather than being a role-model, she's sort of deceitful, untrusting, and like everyone besides Sen, she succumbs to No-Face's empty bribes.

Now, I have to go to work, so I'll think of some more later... maybe.