So get on the Catbus and hold on as we take you on a fantastical journey through the folklore that inspired the shapeshifting, spell-casting spirits of Ghibli. Many of these characters are yōkai, or paranormal entities that haunt Japanese mythology. Because this month marks the 34th anniversary of Hayao Miyazaki's founding of the god-tier anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli, we’ve gone beyond the human realm and found which folkloric deities inspired some of Miyazaki’s otherworldly characters.ĭid you know that the already peculiar Radish Spirit in Spirited Away was inspired by a violent legend of love and death? Or that creatures like Totoro are often believed to hide deep in the woods? Even the title of Princess Mononoke tells you something supernatural is going on (mononoke are spirits that can possess people and even torture them). Myth can sometimes be even stranger than movies.
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But he does reveal a sliver of information about the upcoming series finale.If you’ve ever been spirited away by Haku, taken a ride on the Catbus, or otherwise been enchanted by a Studio Ghibli movie, you may find the myths these creatures arose from are even more magical. The FX exec notes that viewers won’t be seeing any new creatures in this year’s magical world of Fillory, following the recent return of Fillory’s twin gods Ember (Dominic Burgess) and Umber (Nico Evers-Swindell).
Still, Dumont had to come in six weeks early for the body casting process. Yet the White Lady’s facial prosthetics were simple: a brow piece and a bit around her nose accentuating actor Dumont’s features. “That was one where we had one concept and knocked the design out of the park,” Masters notes, adding that he’d like to see a spinoff series for the character. Pickersgill’s initial designs for the White Lady were inspired by albino humans and animals, and delivered as advertised. “But they’re such amazing actors, the last thing we wanted to do was bury them in rubber.”
“It’s really easy to build too much out to create the characters,” Masters says. That meant not laying on the makeup and prosthetics too thick, so that the actors’ expressions could be seen. The one note that was imperative for the effects team was that whether members were designing Sir Effingham or any other creature, the actors had to be able to use their faces as much as possible. Its one of those things I will never be able to explain. Truth be told, I could not tell you the reason I love this character so much. They showed up with Sean Maguire,” he chuckles. However, my favorite character from this novel is the Mad Hatter and all his subsequent forms (from Disneys film, to Tim Burtons rendering, to Batmans portrayal, and SyFys retelling). For Sir Effingham, for instance, special effects coordinator Jason Ward had imagined someone “chunky, or larger, so we could elaborate on the pig aspect.
It’s not uncommon for other members of the MastersFX team to have preconceived ideas about the types of actors who should cast. Masters himself executed the makeup effects for fan-favorite creatures the White Lady (Emma Dumont) and Sir Effingham, designed by MastersFX artists Sarah Pickers-gill and Chris Devitt, respectively. “The MastersFX team brings so much creativity, skill, fun and yes - mastery - to the process of creating each new creature, for our little multiverse,” she says.
The team typically has a three- to four-week schedule to work with. “We hand-build the prosthetics and creature suits,” Masters says. Whether working on characters like Lord Fresh (Anthony Ingram), Napster (Lynn Andrews) or Sir Effingham, the process begins by getting the actor into the studio, where body and facial impressions are taken.
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