Spirited Away-Task 13: How are elderly witches represented.

How are the two elderly witches represented differently:

Yubaba is the evil witch and is represented as evil and cruel towards children, which is shown in her first interaction with Yubaba. We see that she uses her magic to zip up Chihiro's mouth to stop her from talking. Children watching this film would be scared and feel bad for Chihiro as they are seeing someone just like them be tormented and punished. We see through Chihiro's facial expression that she is scared that she has been treated like this. This fits in with the elderly character stereotypes like being cruel and wicked, especially towards children. At the end of that scene, we see Yubaba threaten to work Chihiro to death. This might be used by the director as a way of making parents not work children too hard and to instead, let them have a bit of fun and freedom.

Meanwhile, Zeniba is very kind towards Chihiro as well as Chihiro's friends. This might be used by the director to calm the younger audience and let them realise that not all members of the elderly are and and harmful. Zeniba portrays the other side of elderly stereotypes like being gentle, nurturing and peaceful. This is shown when Chihiro goes to meet with her, and her dialogue is much softer compared to Yubaba, who talks a lot more aggressively with Chihiro. Another example of Zeniba's and Yubaba's differences is their settings. Zeniba's house uses much brighter colours compared to Yubaba's dark office which shows how Zeniba has a much brighter personality.