English 2 Project 1

Compare contrast essay

Animated Film
Spirited Away VS Inside Out
Opening:
-

Definition of animated film.

Details of each film, eg year of production, director, main cast, and
brief explanation of the story.
Similarities between the two films.

Content:
Similarity 1: Unwillingness to leave their original living location to a new
environment.
-

Spirited Away: Chihiro shows her unwillingness to leave at the start of

the film as she states that: I finally get a bouquet and its a goodbye
present. Thats depressing.
Inside Out: Riley was uprooted from her Midwest life unwillingly when
her father starts a new job in San Francisco. She was left no choice but
to leave her friends and house in Minnesota and proceeds to a new
environment, which is San Francisco. San Francisco is never better than
Minnesota to Riley. She has a creepy house, cried on the first day of
school, has no friends and even failed to play hockey well in San
Francisco. Her life breaks down in the new environment and she could
not cope with it anymore, causing her negative emotions, such as
anger, disgust, sadness and fear to occupy her mind, which later on
results in her decision of running away from home.

Similarity 2: Crying makes things better

-

Spirited Away: After Chihiro saw her parents in pig form, she let out all
her negative feelings by crying while eating the bun that Haku gave
her. After this incident, she has gathered positive energy to work hard
in the bath house so she could reunite with her parents.
Inside out: In the movie, Sadness portrays a characteristic of
immersing herself in sadness no matter what circumstances she is in.
Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of lifes
problem, is one of the famous quotes by sadness. At the climax of the
movie, Joy discovered that in the past, Riley missed a shot in her
hockey game that made her so sad that she wanted to quit hockey.

That incident caused her to shed tears and things eventually became
better afterwards as her teammates came to cheer her up in the end.
Similarity 3: Wanting to protect the main character
-

Spirited Away: In the movie, Lin, who is also a worker in the bath house
wanted to protect Chihiro when she first went into the bath house to
request for a job. When the frog man accidentally smelled human, Lin
distracted his attention with the roasted lizard offered by Kamaji in
return of his favour. The Radish God then covered Chihiro up in the
elevator and sent her to the highest floor of the bath house, which is
where Yubabas office is located at.
Inside Out: Joy is like a parent, all she wants is for Riley to be happy. No
matter how bad things are getting, she always thinks positive and
remind Riley of the happy things in life that should be appreciated. She
once said: I just wanted Riley to be happy, and she practices what
she preach at the same time. She made great effort to return to the
headquarters because she knows that without her, Riley will never be
happy again and she doesnt want that to happen.

Similarity 4: Parents who are concern of their children

-

Spirited Away: Yubaba takes extra care of her giant baby. She gives him
all that she could and avoided him to go out as she is afraid that he will
get sick if he does. The giant baby is pampered since he was born and
he threatens Chihiro to play with him or he will cry to attract Yubabas
attention. When Yubaba finds out that her baby is missing, she loses
her mind and orders Haku to get her baby back, even willing to let
Chihiro reunite with her parents in return.
Inside Out: Rileys parents are both very sweet and caring. Since she
was young, they have always been there to support and love her. This
results in Riley creating a core memory and a personality island for
family. They all share lovely unforgettable moments together. At the
end of the movie, Rileys parents developed an understanding towards
Rileys situation of feeling unaccepted in San Francisco and tired their
best to be there for her. They have always been supportive towards
Riley in her interest of playing hockey and cheered for her in every
competition that she participates in.

Similarity 5: Parents that are unaware of their childs emotions/ did not have
time to care about their childs problem.
-

Spirited Away: During a car ride, Chihiros family came upon a blocked
tunnel. Chihiros parents eventually became curious and wanted to
take a look around even though Chihiro finds the place creepy. Even
when she refuses to join her parents for the adventure, her parents

ignored her and told her that she can wait outside alone for them to
return. This event then causes her parents to turn into a pig and she
had to work hard and remember her identity to save them.
Inside Out: When Rileys family moved to Minnesota, things started to
get wrong. The new house is horrible and the moving van is gone
missing. All these has made her parents busy and occupied all day,
experiencing quite a tough period in life which made them have no
time for Riley. Riley tried her best to keep up the mood of her parents
by acting happy even when shes not. As time slowly passes by, Riley
could not keep it up anymore and negative emotions flooded her mind,
resulting in her decision of running away from San Francisco back to
Minnesota.

Similarity 6: The importance of friendship

-

Spirited Away: In the movie, Chihiro went through the hardships she
faced in the mysterious land with the help of her friends. As example,
three of her friends accompanied her on her journey to Yubabas twin
sisters house to get the cure for the spell she set on the stamp Haku
stole for Yubaba. When Chihiro leave Yubabas twin sisters house,
Chihiro is gifted a hair tie made by her with the help of Chihiros
friends, saying that it contains the power of friendship, wanting her to
keep it well as it is very precious.
Inside Out: Meg is Rileys best friend in Minnesota as both of them
played hockey together. When Riley and her parents move to San
Francisco, they part their ways in a tearful goodbye. A few days later,
they start video chatting and Meg reveals she has found a brand new
best friend who she continuously talks endlessly about, unknowingly
angering Riley. Riley becomes fed up and hangs up on her, which
causes the friendship island built as an aspect of her personality to
collapse.

Closing:
-

Restate the similarities.

Both are very good films with excellent plot. Portrays the importance of
good relationships and love.
Award won/ tickets sold.

References

Spirited Away. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spirited_away/
Inside Out. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/