Avoiding Speed Racer: Adapting Spirited Away

Dubbing Spirited Away wasn't a straight translation job…the translation had to be carefully crafted into a screenplay that stayed true to Miyazaki's vision, made the film crystal clear and matched the characters' mouth movements. Bob Miller reports on how it was done.

By Bob Miller | Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 12:00 am

Writers Cindy Davis Hewitt and Don Hewitt worked 24/7 for three weeks to adapt Spirited Away into English. Photo courtesy of Cindy Davis Hewitt and Don Hewitt.

In bringing Spirited Away to North America, director Hayao Miyazaki credits his long-time friend John Lasseter of Pixar, "who bulldozed his way through every obstacle to make this happen."

Lasseter served as executive producer of the English adaptation, with the goal of preserving Miyazaki’s vision while making it relatable to North American audiences. His creative team included producer Don Ernst, director Kirk Wise, and husband-and-wife writers Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt.

The Hewitts attended the Hollywood premiere of Spirited Away at the El Capitan Theater on September 10, 2002. A charming and delightful young couple, both were understandably thrilled with the enthusiastic reaction to their translation.

Bob Miller: How did you get the assignment?

Cindy Hewitt: We were working for Pixar for a year-and-a-half on another project, and so when this project came up, they thought of us.

BM: What project was that?

CH: Top secret. We're signed to secrecy.

Don Hewitt: It's just in treatment form right now.

BM: It's that early in production?

DH: Yeah. It's an original thing they were working on.

BM: I see. Can you tell me your other credits?

CH: This is our first credit. We sold a screenplay so we got some other jobs from working on it, but this is our first screen credit.

BM: How did you translate this film?

CH: We didn't do any kind of research. We watched the film with subtitles and were also given a direct translation, which was much choppier. They do a pretty good job, I think, actually, with the subtitles, making it sound American. The direct translation is very bizarre.

DH: They wanted us to start working on it immediately. Even if we had wanted to do research, we had to start turning in pages right away, so...

CH: It was good, because we were really trying to just say, "Here's the film. We're an American audience. What don't we get?"

DH: We just wanted to make it sound good and as understandable as possible to us as Americans. Not necessarily having to understand Japanese culture to 'get it,' but just ‘get’ the simple logic of the movie.