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A Buena Vista release. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki; starring Rumi Hiiyagi and Miyu Irino. Released to DVD on April 22, 2003.  Japanese animation deity Hayao Miyazaki’s latest effort, Spirited Away is yet another sterling fable overflowing with his typically complex, strong-willed adolescent protagonists and elaborately ingenious (not to mention trippy) creatures. More so than any of his previous cinematic treasures (Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke), Spirited Away is a fairy tale of enchanting wonders and magical delights about sacrifice, courage, and self-determination. Ten-year old Chihiro and her parents make a wrong turn on the way to their new house. When she stumbles upon an amusement park inhabited by ghosts, her problems go from bad to worse. With her parents quickly turned into pigs by an evil witch named Yubaba, Chihiro lands a job at a nearby bath house in the hope of finding a way to prevent her parents from becoming bacon. However, Chihiro’s journey is soon revealed to be primarily one of self-discovery. With her exaggerated anime eyes and mouth, Chihiro begins her adventure as a panicky crybaby, and matures into a brave, confident young woman. Trapped in a world full of sentient dust mites, Kabuki ghosts, disgusting mud blobs and a giant towering baby, Chihiro teams with Yubaba’s defiant apprentice, Haku, resolving to overcome her fears and save her parents from the witch’s nefarious curse. Miyazaki’s pensive, lyrical pacing envelops viewers in a soothing trance, and this tranquility helps give the film’s bursts of action an added punch. But the film is, first and foremost, a visual masterpiece. Miyazaki’s artwork has a sumptuous radiance–the balance struck between the simplicity of his human faces and the elaborately ornate and textured designs of his environments and creatures is mesmerizing–and the swift, hyper-real movements of his characters exhibit a gracefully stylized physicality that’s awe-inspiring to behold. Spirited Away forgoes the intense combat and preachy environmental hand-wringing of Princess Mononoke in favor of a classic children’s tale about individuals learning to stand on their own two feet. The irony is that the results are not only more affecting, but more exhilarating as well.
nicholas schager yes, it's true: After doing particularly well during the award season in 2003, and earning the title of ‘best reviewed film of 2002’, Spirited Away was re-released to theaters across America. | |||||
