Simon, JulieRhee, MeganGilpatrick, Morgan2020-12-022020-12-022020-11-16UB_2020_Gilpatrick_Mhttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/20178In this dissertation, I maintain that animated stories that reconnect children with nature are an untapped resource for addressing the climate crisis. By reinventing the humble fairy tale, we can tackle one of the biggest problems we face as a society, changing our cultural mindset toward nature. The main goal of this written thesis has been to identify six elements of the feature-length animation My Neighbor Totoro that make it an effective ecocentric children’s fairy tale. I test these six elements by using them to create a new ecological fairy tale, Amerah’s GardenM.F.A. -- University of Baltimore, 2020Thesis submitted to the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Baltimore in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Design.Science and environmental journalist Andrew Revkin frames the climate crisis as a grand challenge. International and federal reports on climate change released in 2018 from the US Global Change Research Program, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and The Lancet warn that time is running out for our Earth’s ecosystem if we fail to cap the rise of global temperatures to within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels. If we fail to meet this grand challenge, our children and grandchildren will experience the impact of the climate and ecological crisis in ways that we can’t possibly imagine. Children’s stories are one of the building blocks of our adult belief system. A well-crafted animated ecocentric fairy tale can reframe a child’s relationship with nature from anthropocentric to ecocentric. The Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 feature-length animation My Neighbor Totoro is internationally recognized for its powerful ecological message. I use My Neighbor Totoro as a model for an ecocentric fairy tale and identify six elements that I believe make it such an effective ecocentric fairy tale. I identify these elements and use them to create my own ecological fairy tale, Amerah’s Garden79 leavesapplication/pdfenThis item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.animationchildren’s storiesclimate crisisdeep ecologyecocentric fairy taleecological intelligenceHayao Miyazakimodern fairy taleMy Neighbor Totorostorytellingclimate changeText