How can you tell you’re watching a Ghibli film—especially when sometimes the homages are almost as beautiful as the Hayao Miyazaki original?
An impressive new supercut offers a solution to this quandary by showing us just how often Studio Ghibli’s films reference and include visual homages to each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCfpgXgB9I
The tradition of animators inserting subtle references and jokes into films is immemorial, from Pixar movies constantly referencing other Pixar movies, to animation school Cal Arts churning out a generation of artists who insert a sneaky reference to their alma mater. Like cartoonist Al Hirschfeld’s famous “Nina,” such visual Easter eggs are a form of self-identification, and a treat for the audience member savvy enough to catch the visual.
But we had no idea Ghibli had apparently gotten in on the act. We aren’t surprised, though: The self-reference is just one more stroke of whimsical genius from one of the greatest animation studios in the world.
H/T RocketNews24 | Screengrab via Movie Munchies/YouTube