Spirited Away
Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Kamaji bangs the work surface, causing a chopstick to fall to the floor, but in a following shot both chopsticks are back in the bowl. (00:23:00)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Chihiro pulls the rope to let the water pour onto the large stink spirit, she falls in the tub, and then it goes to a view of the water pouring on the spirit, however the rope isn't in the shot, yet should be visibly dangling down. (00:59:35)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: To the right of Kamaji on the wooden decking, there are two folded purple sheets on top of each other, clearly visible in the overhead shot when he yells "You sootballs got a problem?! Now get back to work!" However, when Chihiro and Lin leave and Chihro thanks Kamaji, when he says "Good luck," you can see that it is now a purple sheet on top of a blue sheet. (00:27:20 - 00:29:10)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After pulling the rope to let the herbal water in, Chihro falls off of the side of the bathtub, onto the floor, and you can see two brooms leaned up against the side of the tub. Then, when No-face drops the herbal soak tokens, there is a wide shot of Chihro, and the brooms are gone. (00:54:55)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Chihiro first speaks with Yubaba, Yubaba puts a bag of coins into a box, and closes the lid. She then lights a cigarette and starts smoking. Then in the wideshot, when she blows out smoke and starts cackling, the lid to the box she closed is now open. (00:35:00 - 00:35:40)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Chihiro is preparing the bath for the intruder, the rope attached to the water pipe disappears when she sees the faceless ghost. (00:57:00)

Dr Wilson

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Chihiro talks to Kamaji about taking the train to see Zeniba, she says "Yep, I'll walk back along the tracks," and turns around, and the little mouse and bird are sitting on her left shoulder. It then cuts to a wideshot of Chihro walking over to Haku, but now the mouse and little bird have vanished from her shoulder. (01:27:15)

Hamster

Spirited Away mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Chihiro stands on the black slug that comes out of Haku, the black stain left on the floor is a distorted mess. However when the sootballs run over to the stain, it is now a perfectly formed footprint. (01:24:00 - 01:25:00)

Hamster

Factual error: At the start of the film Chihiro's father slams on the brake to avoid the statue in the road and quickly stops. There are three pedals, meaning that this is a manual transmission car (a pedal e-brake would be positioned differently), but he only puts his foot down on the brake and doesn't touch the clutch. Whilst he would stop, there was not enough time for the car to stop as quickly and as smoothly as it did. The car would also stall out but it doesn't.

Lummie

Continuity mistake: In many closeups of Haku (like near the scene where he gets chased by paper) he has green eyes. But when he wakes up (in the scene with Zaniba turns Bou into a mouse), he has brown eyes.

Deliberate mistake: When her father jumps on the brakes, they lock up, even though the car is supposed to have ABS, which is supposed to prevent this from happening.

Plot hole: When her father is taking the "shortcut" he somehow doesn't need to shift gears even though he has a manual transmission. At the speed he was at he should be in at least 2nd gear.

Yubaba: Oh, my baby! Are you all right? Are you emotionally tramautized?

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Trivia: The idea of having the bath house workers clean the river spirit came from an experience Hayao Miyazaki had when he was younger, where he helped clean a polluted river and one of the items removed from it was a bicycle.

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Question: Due to the Audi having a left side steering wheel, Chihiro's father being brown haired and overweight (rare in Japan), Chihiro having a whiny nature, her confusion of work responsibility, and her parents eating food with gluttonous abandon (all stereotypical American characteristics), could Chihiro have been the product of a Japanese-Anglo American mixed marriage? It would explain that the reason for her exposure to the spirit world is to broaden her Japanese heritage via work ethic, gratitude, maintaining calmness, understanding hierarchy, and belief in the existence of iconic yōkai.

Gordon Rice

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