Spirited Away: Miyazaki version of Alice in Wonderland.

This is another Anime from the famed Miyazaki. It is one of the more recent films and it has won a number of much deserved award. The main story element is that of a girl becoming a woman. A coming of age film, if you will, and it is a very entertaining movie.

I was mesmerized the first time I watched this. I bought this movie knowing nothing about it. It was purchased based solely on good things I saw online as well as the Miyazaki name. It was a good decision and a movie I highly recommend. I highly recommend that if you know nothing about this movie that you stop reading, go to the store and pick it up. You will not be disappointed. It is a captivating world.

Warning: Minor Spoiler in the next paragraph.
It is the story of Chihiro, a young and immature girl. She gets caught in a world of spirits. Chihiro enters the world unknowingly with her parents thinking they stumbled upon an old amusement park. Her parents begin to consume some unattended food and inadvertently creates a series of event that trap them in this spirit world. She must perform a series of tasks to free herself and her parents from this spirit world.

There are several themes in the movie. One is that of coming of age. At the beginning you have a scared little girl. Chihiro is forced to face this new world and learn how to adapt to constant change. These tasks bring out the hidden part of the character, her hidden strengths. And through these challenging tasks Chihiro soon learns that she can handle these tasks on her own without the assistance from her parents or others. At the end you have a young woman ready to take on a whole new world.

Another theme is that of conservation. The conservation theme is also carried in many of Miyazaki’s other movies. The message is hidden through story telling but it is fairly obvious when you think of it. If you didn’t get the message then just take a look at what happened to the stink spirit and compare it to the spirit that Chihiro frees from Yubaba.

I loved the character creation of this movie. All of the characters have personality in their dialogue but more importantly in their action. Each spirit moves in a unique way that sets it apart from the other spirits in the story. You can even tell the difference between the workers by how they move. A lot of thought went into the physical aspect of each character, and it shows.

The character building of the main characters is well done. Throughout the movie you are acquiring different pieces of each of the character’s personality. In the end you can’t say that any one person is truly good or truly bad because these characters are not one dimensional. Instead you see characters that have certain strengths and weaknesses. This is a very common element in Miyazaki’s writing. He doesn’t feel the world is black and white. Rather the world is very complex. What is more important is the driving force behind each character and the reason for their actions.

The music
Joe Hisaishi once again does the music in the film. I would describe it as fast moving classical. It is sort of flighty and free flowing. Even the dark parts of the film have a sense of hope in the music itself. If you have heard his other soundtracks then you will be familiar with this one.

Who is this for?
This is a children’s movie that is also entertaining for adults. If you have a sheltered child then you may want to preview this movie first but most children shouldn’t have a problem with the content. For my son the scariest part was seeing the spirits. After he realized that the spirits were generally good than he relaxed when watching the movie. There is also a scene what has a little bit of blood in it.

Additional DVD material
On disk one is “The art of Spirited Away.” Just a short featurette.

Disk 2
Behind the microphone- 5 minute featurette about the making of the English dub version.
Select storyboard to scene comparison- 10 minute featurette. It show some storyboard stuff with the music and sound. Sort of interesting. It can be in English or Japanese.
Nippon television special- 42 minute behind the scenes, all in Japanese with English subtitles. This is the most fascination extra out of the lot.
Original Japanese trailers-

The key players
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Chief executive producer: Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Producer: Toshio Suzuki
Supervising art director: Masashi Andou
Art director: Youji Takeshige

Languages:
English, French, and Japanese

Subtitles
English for hearing impaired and a literal translation English version.


Rating
PG

Duration
2:04:29


You may also want to check out
My 10 favorite anime
My top 50 movies reviewed

Or some of my individual Anime movie reviews.
Akira.
Ghost in the Shell.
Vampire Hunter.
Ninja Scroll.
Fists of the Northstar.
Princess Mononoke