Spirited Away
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Movie Reviews of Spirited Away
Movie Review: Fairytales don't tell children....
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply wonderful. It is undisputed This is a beautiful movie. The plot is captivating and personal. It does meander, but in a good way. It takes time to notice things and build momentum. Spirited Away could have been shorter- but it would have suffered for it. If you want to appreciate it as a piece of art, watch with subtitles, but the dub is fine. It communicates the plot well enough, and children (the audience) shouldn't have to worry about reading when watching movies, because it takes them out of just watching it. Those who worry about accuracy and Americanizing in the translation are misguided. I know enough Japanese to know the sub mistranslates very often in this and any film, rephrasing most of the questions, putting in things not said. It is a good sub, but it had to be "mistranslated" because most of the meaning is lost if just the words are translated and not the intent. When Chihiro's parents are calling to see if anyone is there, they are saying "Sumimasen!" or "I'm sorry," which makes little sense without context. The sub isn't more accurate, but the acting may be better, because some people don't like Chihiro's english actor. I thought she did well.I would recommend this with a few "buts:"
1) Don't buy it if you liked Princess Mononoke because of it's environmental sentiments. The environmental message is second to the plot, and is stating Miyazaki's love for the earth, not that _you_ should love it. It's what separates Mononoke from a well drawn Captain Planet. Neither movie is there to take you by the hand and tell you what you or your children ought to think about anything.
2) Don't buy it if you don't like fairy tales, as in the Grimm ones. In fairy tales, any morality is incidental, making the hero apparent. Her parents are turned into pigs for their greed, but would have been eventually anyway, and Chihiro's desire not to join them so she can eventually save them drives the plot early on. Things just happen, and being a good girl puts her in more real danger at times than being neutral or bad.
3) You won't know this until you see it, but if you can't understand NoFace, you won't understand the film. He is the only other character besides Chihiro on the cover. He has more screen time than Haku, and is in most of what critics call "dead time." I'm not sure I fully understand him myself. Miyazaki calls him autobiographical. He wants desperately to please people, is figuratively and literally ravenous, and is empty and directionless without consuming people. He is tragic, and it would be an incomplete movie without him.
4) Just a note: Chihiro never finds herself, merely discovers she has always been there. This is why she goes from sullen and sarcastic to polite and determined. This is seen as a very good thing, and very different from the typical American heroine who does the opposite. She isn't a fantasy fulfillment but, *gasp,* a role model (but isn't there just to be one). She does the right thing without guarantee it will turn out well or regard for if it will. Being "true to herself" never comes into it. Parents fear not: the heroine isn't insufferably annoying, but will be unfamiliar. Thank God.
With all of this said, is it good for children? It will scare them. It scared me. That is its nature. But it will scare them with things they are already afraid of. "Fairy tales don't tell Children that Dragons exist. Children already know that Dragons exist. Fairy tales tell Children the Dragons can be killed." Primal nonsensical terror is one of the most magical and definitive parts of childhood. Watching this is, in the long run, better than a night light. It's a sword.
Movie Review: A Truly *Wonderful* and *Magical* Movie!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love the movie SPIRITED AWAY by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. It's a breath taking anime film about a young girl, Chihiro, who is literally "spirited away" to a nether world full of magical beings and fantastic possibilities. She must stay and work at a bathhouse for spirits because a witch has turned her parents into pigs. With courage, hope, love, and the help of a boy named Haku, Chihiro must find a way to outsmart the witch and rescue herself and her parents from this realm and return to the human world.
Just like another reviewer pointed out, beneath the surface this film is also about not judging people at face value because there's good and bad in all of the characters, and in us. Chihiro seems to understand that and therefore has compassion for even the most frightening and evil spirits/characters that pop up in the movie and helps them. And even though she might be afraid of them, she doesn't judge them. Perhaps that's the real message of the film and why people find it so endearing...
The English dub is fantastic and Daveigh Chase as "Chihiro," Jason Marsden as "Haku," and the fabulous Suzanne Pleshette as evil witch "Yubaba" are terrific in their respective roles. But for those purists out there the original Japanese language track in 5.1 surround sound is available.
** Spirited Away Movie ** (02:04:28-Minutes)
= Intro by John Lasseter (Pixar)/Widescreen with English or Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and French (not in 5.1). English subtitles and captions for the hearing impaired are also available options.
BONUS FEATURES
** Introduction by John Lasseter (Pixar) ** (01:11-Minutes)
= talks about his first viewing of the film and how it is his favorite.
** The Art O Spirited Away ** (15:12-Minutes)
= featurette hosted by Jason Marsden (voice of "Haku"). It also shows Miyazaki and Lasseter as well as some of the actors and the people behind-the-scenes English version of this film, talking about the movie.
Sneak Peeks, Scene Selection and Set Up available.
** Behind The Microphone ** (5:40-Minutes)
= featurette showing the English dub in the studio with Marsden, Pleshette, Chase and others.
** Storyboard With Sound ** (10:38)
= storyboards for a scene with the dialogue intact. You can listen to either the Japanese or English language track.
** Nippon Television Special ** (41:51)
= Japanese TV special on the making of "Spirited Away." Japanese with English subtitles showing the concept, storyboards, research, animation, creative meetings etc. that went into this movie. The crew works around the clock to meet deadlines, sleeping and eating at their desks. It also shows the voice actors for the Japanese language track.
** Japanese Trailers & Teasers ** (28:58)
= 23 different trailers and teasers for the film. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Great film and fantastic DVD set and I highly recommend it. And for other Miyazaki films may I suggest Kiki's Delivery Service and/or Howl's Moving Castle, both favorites of mine (although I didn't like the Kristen Dunst's voice over on "Kiki's...").
Movie Review: I got spirited away!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't believe I didn't get this sooner! I would see the promotions for it on television when I was eleven when it first came out, and I could kick myself for not getting before I became a teenager. A lot of my imagination has deteriorated within that time, but I'm really glad I ended up buying. Being a fan of "My Neighbor Tortoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" as a kid (which both inspired me majorly) I was wondering if Hayao Mayazaki was same one who created "Sprited Away". Doing a little research, I found out it was the same man, so I got the DVD expecting a fantasy, and got something out of my own imagination that got me back to remembering how I used to have so much fun with my own imagination back then.
Chihiro (american voiced by Daveigh Chase from The Ring) isn't too thrilled moving away to another town. New school, new friends, and a new house. It's not easy for someone who's just entering into her pre-teens. But when her parents accidentally take a wrong turn, the three find themselves in a seemingly abandoned amusement park. Her parents find some food left out in a restaurant, and when you see food you know someone has to be there. But when Chihiro comes back, she finds her parents have undergone a transformation, and strange shadows going up and down the sidewalks of the once abandoned place. Yet now that darkness has fallen, Chihiro knows something about the place is different, and if she wants to save her parents and herself, the only way out of the place is going straight through it.
I don't want to give away too much because if you give away something, you give it all away. Hayao Mayazaki must take these own ideas from his own childhood imagination, because his artwork, and where the plot goes is too amazing to be anywhere else. Being a wannabe author, Mayazaki's work has inspired, and I'm sure for any child who sees Spirited Away or any of his other breathtaking movies will be swept out of the world, and back into their own imagination.
Sprited Away is one of the more detailed and well thought out movies of his. Some of them are very easy to figure out, and some of them take a little while, but they deliver just as they always have. This one brings in a little bit of everything, and doesn't really need all explained, but as the story goes on, things fall together, and as a fantasy, you shouldn't think logical. When something comes out of the imagination, nothing is ever logical again.
The voice talents are amazing. I was surprised to find out that the highly acclaimed horror remake of a japanese thriller The Ring would have the same voice of Samara (for those of you who have seen it) in another remake. Coincidental? Daveigh Chase did good as little Chihiro, but of course the original is always better. I didn't listen to the japanese voice, but just in case I didn't like the new american voices, it's always good to switch on the subtitles, and change to the original japanese voices. That's what I really like about DVD's.
Spirited Away definitely has a good many laughs, but for kids who don't understand them it may be good, but for the adults, they'll be laughing until they can't breathe with the inside jokes all throughout the movie. The DVD also has a good variety of things to choose from unlike the sad DVD for my neighbor Totoro. I hope Mayazaki comes out with more like this, though. He's so highly underrated it's not even funny. At least there's a good number of us who appreciate him.
Movie Review: "Spirit of Wonders" Miyazaki Does it Again
Summary: 5 Stars
Hayao Miyazaki has had it rough with American audiences. The master director has only been glimpsed briefly by American movie-watchers once or twice in the nineties. However, he did manage to secure a somewhat small stateside followings with the releases of "Princess Mononoke," "My Neighbor Totoro," and "Kiki's Delivery Service" speckled throughout the nineties. Finally, he has received the ultimate recognition that he has had coming in "Spirited Away."Now, for those of yout oo lazy to read the back of the DVD here's how the story goes. Chihiro is a little girl who is at a very odd point in her life; her family is moving to a new town. On the way, her family decides to take a detour and winds up in a strange land that her father dimisses as an amusement park gone under. However, night falls and the place comes to life. Spirits of all shapes and sizes start emerging from the woodwork. Chihiro is frightened for her life, tires to get away, but can't when she realizes her parents have been turned to pigs. A benevolent spirit, Haku, helps her out by getting her into the Bath House of the Gods, the property of one evil witch named Yu-Baba. She gives Chihiro a job, but takes her name as colateral, giving her the suffix "Sen." From here she learns about herself in an alien, yet familiar, world populated by gods.
The story is very much similar to the works of Lewis Carrol, but works on a more Eastern way of thinking. The spirits presented here are mainstays in Shinto folklore. In this, Miyazaki provides the viewer with a world so far into the imagination yet at the same time, hitting close to home. It's a sense of creativity in something that has been around for eons that makes them wonderous. The spirits/gods/kame are infinitely more enjoyable than any deity that has come across Western screens. From the spider-like Kamaji, to the inky No-Face, and (my personal favorite) the oozing Mud God.
The characters are much like Miyazaki's other movies. His traditional heroine who grows strong through out the movie, and the wonderous side characters that support her. Each character is used for all intents and purposes. Not a single character wastes screen time. If you've ever seen a Miyazaki film, you know these characters are easy to relate to and fun to love.
The music is everything I would expect from a Ghibli film. Hisaishi Joe has been conducting for twenty years and shows no sign of losing his touch. His melodies are a mix of emotions that add onto the action on screen.
The animation is gorgeous. There is no doubt about that, Miyazaki's films always have an aura of perfection, especially in the art and animation department. Even his older works like "Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro" and "Future Boy Conan" age better than most anime their time period. The whole world in "Spirited Away" looks like one gigantic, colorful portrait. Key word; Beautiful.
In the end, I really can't stop praising this film enough. The fact that it garnered the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature should do more service to the film than I could. I can finalize this all by saying that "Spirited Away" is the best film you can buy for yourself, your loved one, or your whole family. With something for everyone this film proves once and for all, Hayao Miyazaki is truly a master of anime.
-RW
Movie Review: an animated masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
For many years, Hayao Miyazaki has been regarded throughout the world as a visionary on par with Walt Disney. It is rather ironic that his presence in North America consists of a devoted cult following because his films have barely been shown here because of Disney. The studio has the distribution rights to all of Miyazaki's films on this continent and has sat on them for years or released them direct to video with little to no fanfare. This changed with Princess Mononoke which generated such a critical buzz that Disney ended up releasing it in a few theatres.It paved the way for Miyazaki's next effort, Spirited Away, which is the most successful film in Japanese history (it grossed over $200 million before it was shown in North America!). Despite Pixar's John Lasseter championing the film, Disney still gave it a limited theatrical release (compared to their own titles) here in North America. This made its surprise win at the 2002 Academy Awards for Best Animated Film all the more of an upset. Now, Spirited Away is out on DVD on a two-disc set.
From the haunting image of a riverboat full of lights that drifts along the water at night to the amusing sight of little balls of soot dancing along the floor and carrying tiny lumps of coal, Spirited Away is full of images that are as stunning as anything this side of Disney. Characters flying gracefully through the air is but one of the many flights of fancy that populates Miyazaki's movie. It is this sense of wonderment and the feeling of experiencing a waking dream that recalls the original Fantasia.
One of the most refreshing aspects about Spirited Away is its to appeal to people of all ages. It stresses character and story over merchandising, which is such a novel concept in this day and age. One really gets the feeling that this movie was made by a true artist who has something personal to say.
Aside from the movie itself, the first disc also contains a superficial featurette entitled, "The Art of Spirited Away." John Lasseter and some of the American voice actors are interviewed and praise Miyazaki, however too much emphasis is placed on the English translation and not enough is spent examining the film.
Disc two begins with "Behind the Microphone," a featurette on the American actors who provided the voices for the dubbed version of Spirited Away. This extra feels like Disney is patting itself on the back a little too much. "Select Storyboard-to-Scene Comparison" takes a few scenes and allows the viewer to go back forth from the storyboards to the final product. While this is a nice feature you cannot have both on screen at the same time for a true comparison. The strongest supplement is "Nippon Television Special," a fascinating look at Miyazaki and his crew making Spirited Away. It clocks in at 40 minutes and almost makes up for the superficiality of the other extras.
The extras on these DVDs are obviously targeted towards newcomers to Miyazaki's world. This is fine but in the process, Disney is alienating his more devote fans. However, the stunning transfer and the option to enjoy the movie in its original Japanese with English subtitles, more than makes up for the lack of substantial supplemental material. This movie is required viewing not just for fans of animation but for film buffs in general. Spirited Away is an important film that is destined to be regarded as a classic in years to come.