Studio Ghibli’s animated dreamscapes are now life-size exhibits in Singapore

FOR years, the films of Studio Ghibli animated our inner worlds with their magical creatures, shape-shifting spirits and heroic humans. But now, the boundaries between fiction and reality have dissolved through a new exhibition at the ArtScience Museum Singapore.

Here, you can step into Ghibli’s richly imagined landscapes and pose for a picture with various iconic characters, such as Princess Mononoke, Yubaba, Howl, No-Face or Nausicaa. You can ride the red elevator from Spirited Away (2001) or the flying broomstick from Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989). You can even stand in the rain with that lovable owl-eyed furball Totoro from My Neighbour Totoro (1988).

Spread over two storeys, the exhibition boasts over a dozen life-sized tableaus that pull visitors directly into the visual splendour of the films and immerse them in their dreamscapes. These are coupled with miniature dioramas that give insight into how the animations were made.

Just as many of Ghibli’s famous films such as Ponyo (2008) and Spirited Away began life as passion projects of one person, namely writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, you could say the same about this exhibition titled “The World of Studio Ghibli”.

Dimitris Kontopoulos, a senior producer at the museum, played a pivotal role in bringing it to Singapore. Growing up in a small town in Greece, he watched Studio Ghibli’s films on DVDs shared among friends. He fell so hard for Japanese anime that he uprooted himself to live in Japan for seven years, from 2010 and 2017. 

When he moved to Singapore in 2017 for a job at ArtScience Museum, he was determined to bring the magic of Ghibli into the museum, working over several years with the famous studio to mount the exhibition here.     

“The first Studio Ghibli film I watched was Princess Mononoke (1997),” he recalls. “I was really touched by its environmental message about protecting our natural environment (against human exploitation). It shaped my direction in life.”

In Princess Mononoke, a girl raised by wolves fights to preserve the forest and its wildlife. Environmental themes also appear in other Studio Ghibli films, such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1997), set in a world devastated by ecological disaster, and Pom Poko (1994), where shape-shifting raccoon dogs defend their forest from urban developers.

Another common theme for Ghibli’s films is female empowerment. Several of the stories are led by female characters who show courage and resilience despite the odds, from Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke to Chihiro (from Spirited Away) and Sophie (from Howl’s Moving Castle). For Honor Harger, the museum’s vice-president, this was an important reason for mounting the exhibition.

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Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by writer-directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, as well as producer Toshio Suzuki. Its early releases such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and Totoro were huge hits in Japan and parts of Asia.

But it was not until its 2001 film Spirited Away nabbed the Oscar for Best Animation that Ghibli earned global recognition as an animation powerhouse – one to rival Pixar (Toy Story, The Incredibles, Inside Out). In fact, some animation purists put Ghibli ahead of Pixar, because Ghibli tells unique stories using highly detailed hand-drawn images, and Pixar generates its images using computers.

In the exhibition, Ghibli’s attention to detail is perfectly encapsulated in the miniature, hole-in-the-wall dioramas that look like the magical pages of a pop-up book. Each diorama was painstakingly recreated from the films using small, intricate models of characters and landscapes; they exude a handcrafted intimacy born from the same meticulous process involved in making the films.

Beloved Ghibli titles such as Totoro, Ponyo and Spirited Away have become touchstones of childhood wonder, and in many ways, the miniature dioramas – more so the large, life-size, Instagram-friendly tableaus – preserve that magic. 

The World of Studio Ghibli runs at the ArtScience Museum from now till Feb 2, 2025