# Can you identify this animation? (or did I just imagine it?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550 "2007-06-11T11:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/1 "2007-06-11T11:16:13Z")
I’ve just been watching _Howl’s Moving Castle_ and plot points in it resonate strongly with something I thought I’d seen before. The thing I think I’m remembering went something like this: -Some kind of magical entity turns a young girl into an old, ugly woman - causing her to run away into the wilderness. She takes refuge in a cave and lives there for some time in a lonely state. She finds a bird tangled in a thorn bush and rescues it. The bird then helps her in some way - either by bringing her food, or by protecting her, or both. Obviously these themes significantly appear in _Howl’s Moving Castle_ (except it’s a scarecrow that’s stuck in the bush, not a bird), but the thing I’m remembering is definitely not the same movie. Did I just dream it, or is it out there somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/2 "2007-06-11T14:57:43Z")
IIRC Spirited Away has a similar scene, but I haven’t seen it in years, and don’t reacall the part about the cave. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/3 "2007-06-11T15:26:35Z")
Could it be one of those Grimm’s Fairy Tales animated things they used to show when I was a kid? They were actually anime, although of course I didn’t know it at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/4 "2007-06-12T08:27:33Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] IIRC Spirited Away has a similar scene, but I haven’t seen it in years, and don’t reacall the part about the cave. [/QUOTE] It might be Spirited Away that I’m thinking of then - I did watch that at my in-laws house at new year - My memory suggests that the scene might have been a narrative reference, rather than part of the action itself. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/5 "2007-06-12T11:25:23Z")
I watched Spirited Away a few weeks ago and there isn’t anything like that in there. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-animation-or-did-i-just-imagine-it/407550/6 "2007-06-12T11:52:29Z")
Hmm… back to square one. More information… possibly unreliable… the bird may have been a crow/raven, or a bird of prey - the implication was that the girl should have been scared of it, but was brave and helped it, so it helped her in return.