1. The link to consumerism and consumption, rather explicitly shown in the numerous scenes of eating in the film. Here are the ones I remember:
- Chihiro's parents eating their feast
- No Face eating the magic dumpling
- Chihiro eating the seed/berry Haku gives her
- Chihiro and Lin eating pork buns
- Chihiro eating the dumpling Haku gives her
- No Face eating the various bathhouse folks
In many of these scenes, eating is associated with strong feelings of revulsion or some other emotional response. Chihiro breaks down in tears when she eats the dumplings given her by Haku, and I'm sure the bathhouse folks don't appreciate being eaten. Likewise, there's the antithesis of eating - vomiting - emphasized in No Face's "tour de force", as Napier calls it, throwing up everything he's eaten.
Also throughout the film, food tends to have a mystical connotation of some sort - it's rarely just for nourishment. Even Chihiro and Lin's eating of the pork buns is problematic because Chihiro takes a bite of the magic dumpling and is disgusted by it - it looks like she bites into the pork bun to wash it down. Chihiro's rejection of food seems synonymous with her rejection of riches and consumerism more generally - she only takes what she needs, even at the beginning of the film.
2. The giant ducks in Spirited Away are like crosses between Totoro and chocobo from Final Fantasy, while Haku looks like a cross between the wolves from Princess Mononoke and a dragon.
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