There have been plenty of ridiculously ambitious Minecraft modelling projects over the past four years. Talented gamers have used Mojang's Lego-like building sim to craft reproductions of everything from the Starship Enterprise to the Game of Thrones city of King's Landing. But this is something rather special.

Working with a small group of friends Alan Becker is creating a scale reproduction of Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece Spirited Away, including all the iconic buildings and landscapes from the animated movie. Working from hundreds of screenshots and dozens of viewings, he is replicating everything from the opulent bath house to the pig farm where Chihiro's transformed parents are taken. The detail is incredible, with custom textures used to decorate Minecraft's blocky building materials, and the slightest architectural flourishes captured.

The Clock Tower, as portrayed in Minecraft and the movie Photograph: Alan Becker/Studio Ghibli

"I've compiled all the known concept art that shows the infrastructure of the bath house interior," he explains on his YouTube channel. "I'm also implementing red stone wherever needed in order to make things like elevators and automatic doors and boiler room parts."

Of course, once the project is completed (Becker reckons he's 80% there), he could then attempt to recreate classic scenes from the animation. Minecraft movie sequences are all over YouTube, including this rather astounding recreation of the Death Star attack at the close of Star Wars.

You can follow his progress via the development website and there are lots more images on Alan's Imbgur page.