Princess Mononoke and Us

Hey team! I'm super stoked to be working on this project with you all. I think we have the potential of creating something really beautiful together. I've been drawing a lot of inspiration for my ideas form the Studio Ghibli film "Princess Mononoke" lately and was hoping to share some ideas that have stemmed from it. I'm sure some of you have watched it, but if you haven't, in the simplest of terms it's a movie about human's relationship with nature and their balance with one another. It's by the critically acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki so you know it's good.

When thinking of the river character, the forest spirit from the movie came to mind.

In the movie, the forest spirits acts a god of life and death. It's footsteps sprout life, yet just as quickly as the plants bloom, they soon wither away and die. It has the power to give and take life, much like the power of a river as well. I think both conceptually, and aesthetically the forest spirit is what my vision for our river character is. The star-like spots of light within its body reflect the idea I raised of incorporating LEDs into the body of the river puppet.

Also, in the movie there are these small minor characters called "Kodama"

These little guys don't really have a huge role in the plot of the story, but they also represent the life and spirit of nature. Their head rattling gives them a sonic character and I think for our purposes, a similar identity could be made to give our representation of nature a more literal presence. Whether physically with puppets, small like the Kodamas, or just sonically, I like how these small character can represent nature more than just plant and animal life.