Spirited Away

From the opening theme to the closing credits, this film is so beautiful to watch and to listen to that it almost hurts. The animation itself is above average, but the backgrounds are, quite simply, stunning. Above all, Spirited Away shows a breathtaking imagination on the part of the director in bringing to life this deceptively deep story. Having seen this film originally at the cinema, this was the sum of my opinion on it - that it was beautiful but not very profound. However, after repeated viewings, I now understand what some other reviewers have alluded to. In particular, while the story serves almost as a canvas across which the director can introduce all sorts of wonderful characters - some funny, some actually quite scary - there is also a meaningful narrative here as well. The young heroine who, at the beginning of the film, is scared of facing the unknown even with her parents present, by the conclusion has become strong, independent and courageous. This transformation is brought to the screen with the same care and attention as the animation itself, with various events having exceedingly subtle effects on Chihiro's personality. But the main reason why this film works so well, and is so moving, is not that we see Chihiro growing up; it is because the story is, at its heart, about the most important human needs: the quest to return home; the need for acceptance and belonging; and above all, love. I bought this primarily because it was very difficult to find a cinema showing the original language version, which is included on the disc. Althought the American dub is, for the most part, sensitively done, it's not a patch on the Japanese original, in which the heroine sounds slightly older and which (in subtitles) refuses to resort to Americanisms. (Comparing the subtitles with the English language soundtrack reveals some cringe-worthy liberties with the original script in the American form.) Still, congratulations are due to Disney for having the foresight to make this wonderful film as accessible as possible. Incidentally, the first disc of this two-disc set contains the film with a storyboard comparison accessed via the multi-angle feature. While this quickly gets tiresome, it does provide for a very nice feature indeed: the second angle of the last chapter contains the series of background stills from the closing credits, but without the credits themselves. This means that you can appreciate the intricacy of the drawings without interruption, and whilst being serenaded by the gorgeous song Always With Me, which, along with Joe Hisaishi's delicate original score, rounds off a pretty much perfect package.

Wow!!!!! What an adventure! What a story! What a fantasy! I wish I could watch this animation when I was young like Chihiro! But even now being 28 years old, I am impressed.... So, what's special in this movie? Why everybody likes it? 1) Well, first of all, there is a very unusual story. It's just not what you expect from fairytales or what you are accustomed to expect from fairytales. The story is intriguing and is absolutely unpredictable. Each next scene will make your eyes and mouth wide. That's why you'll be glued to the screen the whole 2-hour time while the movie goes. So, I am not going to tell you what's the story is about, as I want you to be excited in the same way I was when I watched it for the first time... 2) Humour. There are plenty of moments there, which will make you laugh. The humour is very intelligent and that's why it's very pleasant and enjoyable. In the course of the movie you'll see various characters. Most of them will make you smile without saying a word! 3) Main characters. I don't know whether you've seen already "Tokyo Godfathers". If yes, then you know how quality drawn characters can be. The 10-years old Chihiro is so real here. Well, actually, my favourite character there is not Chihiro, but wonderful granny Yubaba!!! Oh, she is so cool and witty! Quite a special character I must say, but so lovely! She is so smart and funny that I wish she could be my grand mother!!! 4) Music. You know, with such an original score, you don't really need to watch anything. Just listen to this masterpiece of the famous Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi!!!! Splendid! You will not hear a single electronic sound, but what you'll hear are beautiful orchestral, piano and violin themes. This movie got rich and quality soundtrack. Conclusion: this movie is a masterpiece. I am very happy I watched it and I am glad I got this DVD.

A great film and a great DVD! Nothing more to say.

Spirited Away is the kind of film that shines through not because of it's technical achievements, but it's story. And this is all down to the fact that Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are masters at storytelling, with their only rival in that area being Pixar, and until Toy Story 3, was in my opinion the best animated film I had ever seen. But because Spirited Away is a traditional animated film in the sense that it is 2D, it therefore belongs as the pinnacle of 2D animation. There are however, moments where this film exceeds many of Pixar's own films, in that each and every notable character in this movie is life-like in everythng other than appearance. They all have good and bad qualities in them, just like real people do. This is especially relevant for the lead charcater Chihiro, who in the film, has been transported to an alternate reality and her parents have been taken away from her. So in order to return home with her parents she must work in a bath house which is uder the control of the witch Yubaba, the one who took her parents away. The story is very Alice-in-Wonderland-esque, but is so much more than that. It is very easy to forget that this film is animated, as you really care for the characters, especially Chihiro, in a way that I have only experienced, other than in this film, in Toy Story 3. It is without a doubt the best anime movie I have ever seen, and is the running for one of the best animated movies of all time. It's a difficult film to describe without giving away spoilers, but in short, the animation is brilliant, the characters are realistic, the story is fantastic and for a dub the voice acting is very good (although I recommend watching it in both english and japanese, both of which are on this DVD). Spirtied Away is the benchmark all animated films should aim to be. 5/5

NOTE: The voice actors cited below are from the English language version. Spirited Away is a glorious fantasy; it's a poignant, sometimes dark and visually enchanting masterpiece miles ahead of recent Disney fare. This is partly because the film's not afraid to have morally ambiguous characters. Aside from Chihiro (Daveigh Chase) and to an extent Haku (Jason Marsden) there's no clear heroes or villains; even the main antagonist Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), a greedy, sadistic witch, has some love in her, and even the good humans like Lin (Susan Egan) have their mean sides. Throughout the film I was impressed by how seriously it takes itself; a lot of care has been lavished not just on the animation but also the story and characters. It's a breathtakingly original piece which creates a world as detailed and crisply presented, in the visuals and storytelling, as Star Wars'. While moving house Chihiro and her parents (Lauren Holly and Michael Chiklis) take a wrong turn and stumble across a seemingly derelict theme park. They discover an unstaffed buffet and despite Chihiro's protests her parents eat up, promising to pay the bill once someone arrives. Before they can, however, they're turned into pigs by Yubaba, whose underlings laid out the food for customers at her spiritual bathhouse. Aided by Haku, a young man and Yubaba's apprentice, Chihiro finds a job in the bathhouse so she can throw herself at the witch's mercy. The world of the spirits is so rich that this film rewards repeat viewings. Characters and their natures are presented with great subtlety; you're invited to soak up this strange place like a bathing spirit. I loved a spirit called No-Face (Bob Bergen), whose story arc could be a film of its own. He's a creature of emotion and atmosphere, produced by a deep imagination. He has a scene with Chihiro which contains almost no dialogue and is just a procession of imagery. You don't often see that in "children's films"; in the west we've become used to homogenised work and the placement of profit before art. Spirited Away, which overtook Titanic in Japan's box office, exposes our apathy and cynicism simply by being as good as it is. The animation isn't treated arbitrarily but like an actual medium. This is the kind of film you could watch on mute and have a deeply rewarding experience. Every detail reeks of lavish care; you can get lost in this world. The story's told with equal craft, relying on magic and adventure as opposed to an action climax preceded by a "journey", like a video game ending in a last boss. Spirited Away's entire second act has only one setting - the bathhouse - yet is more inventive than many films with several dozen.

Having worked my way through the Ghibli's, this was the obvious film to add to the list but I would have to admit that whilst I would concede that this is perhaps the most impressive and mature of all that studio's film's I have seen to date, it was also the most disturbing and visually arresting. It is probably a given that the quality of illustration is exceptional with Japanses animation but the usual attention to detail and the familiar that is typical of this studio's work is no longer as re-assuring as in other efforts as it serves to make the film's story more disturbing. There are elements such as Yubaba's initial summoning of the heroine Chihiro, the giant baby and the multi-armed character who looks like a Monty Python character which make the film slightly uncomfortable for me and almost served to push the film into a nightmarish world where everyday things take on more sinister meanings. In many respects, it is a modern fairy tale yet a million miles from the sugar-coated efforts that the inferior Disney studio would be likely to produce and more in keeping with the grotesque elements of some of these stories that children's writer seemed to relish in in the 19th century. This is no doubt a visionary and fantastic piece of film making and the opening 30 minutes is absolutely sensational. Ghibli have probably never made anything quite as compelling at the first half hour. In may respects this is a film of epic proportions and there are times when I felt that the film was a bit flabby - the supposed "comic" elements discussed by one reviewer on Amazon are not really present in my opinion. I didn't like the bath scene with the filthy monster and an air of the uncertain prevades much of the film which ensures that it is not as relaxing and theraputic a watch as something like the visual candy of "Totoro." Whilst it is a long film, your attention is grabbed from the first frame however. As a piece of cinema, I think that this film is worthy of it's reputation. It is a masterpiece but in the same way that something like a Goya painting or a Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" are. i.e They both are slightly unsettling. However, I would have to say that the almost Gothic nature of some of the scenarios (albeit refracted through a very Japanese mentality) does make this film's 12 rating appropriate and I would have to say that this is not a film for young children unless you want to traumatise them! I did not enjoy "Spirted away" as much as "Whisper of the heart" and whilst Ghibli do have the ability to stear even their children's films away from the maudlin and sentimental in many of their efforts, this film doesn't even hint at being the least bit saccarine.

A life-fulfilling epic that is the majesty of all anime-the height of its glory-the representative of all that is in our dreams, our fantasies, our desire to escape and see beyond the boundaries of our consciousness and our minds and our world. 'Spirited Away' will take you on a journey that is completely unique and yet totally encapsulating. Really, no review can quite describe what it is about it-the drawing is beautiful, intensely so, and the story is fast-paced, thrilling, comic and moving (in a way that makes it watchable to almost anyone), but it's near-impossible to pin down just what is so enthralling about this film. Perhaps it is because it presents what we all want-to see something beyond ourselves and beyond what our five senses can detect. Another world? Maybe. A love that is so perfect? Maybe so. Or perhaps it is that the execution and direction is so minutely brilliant, so detailed and yet so sweeping that the film has a genuine, real quality that draws us in despite the fantastic nature of the plot. If I can say anything, it is to repeat the advice of other reviewers to watch this film with subtitles rather than dubbing, which is in my opinion a travesty of betrayal to the makers and the whole idea of the plot, but that may be an exaggeration. As a general fan of anime I can say that subtitles are infinitely superior to the dubbing counterparts. Otherwise, don't miss a moment. Don't watch in it bits. Just sit down, relax, and let it draw you in. I cannot recommend this film more highly, and hope that it may bring the same feeling to you as it did to me.

Another candidate for best animated film of all time, in my opinion, along with Princess Mononoke from the same studio. This film also tackles environmental themes but, one might say, in a slightly more childlike manner. Almost dreamlike at points, the world is absolutely fantastic in the truest sense of the world and is peopled with characters so intricately drawn and unique that it almost breaks ones ability to appreciate other "anime" films afterwards. As with Mononoke, see this with an open mind and don't just write it off as "A Japanese cartoon" and you will be rewarded with one of the richest cinematic experiences ever brought to life in this particular medium. I will say nothing of the story save for the fact that it follows the adventures and trials of a little girl called Chihiro who, when moving house with her parents, winds up getting sucked into an alternate, fantastical realm where rivers go for baths, coal walks and hamsters have the ability to fly. A great film for adults and children alike that has a deep environmental message (but not in a remotely preachy way) under its story of a childs search for her parents in a place where very little is what it seems.