Spirited Away
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Movie Reviews of Spirited Away
Movie Review: A movie worth seeing with your tween daughter
Summary: 5 Stars
First, Spirited Away is about a little girl, but it is NOT A MOVIE FOR LITTLE KIDS. This is something I feel should be stated up front for all the folks (*cough*mundanes*cough*) who think that anything that's animated is for kiddies. It ain't. Welcome to the world of anime.
Actually, let me amend that. There seems to be some anime apologists who are afraid the film will get a bad rap if parents are told that it's not for children. Well foo on them too. This is not a movie suitable for young children. I'll explain more in a moment.
And what a world it is. A young girl named Chihiro travels with her parents to their new home and on the way, take a short cut to what looks like an abandoned theme park. Her parents wander heedlessly into the grounds and find some delicious-smelling food, which they consume.
Then they turn into pigs. It's not a blink-and-you-miss-it special effect. It's a slow, terrifying effect. Chihiro's parents turn into big, fat, squealing pigs. It's horrible -- it's meant to be. Remember the not for kids warning? This is one reason why.
Chihiro is not without her allies. She meets Haku, a river dragon who appears to her in boy form (most of the time). With his help and guidance, Chihiro manages to survive her transition into what turns out to be the spirit world. She makes friends with a moustached, goggled spider-like being who runs the boilerroom and finds employment with Yubaba, the domineering old crone who runs the bathhouse.
Being that I've written a few fantasy books set in Russian fairytales (see Tsar Rising and The Dancing Hut), words like "bathhouse," "crone," and "Yubaba" ring bells. I'm saddened that very few reviewers picked up on the movie's inspiration.
The movie takes many of its cues from Russian myth. Yubaba = Baba Yaga, the infamous hag. Just as Yubaba has a baby she fawns over, Baba Yaga alternately menaces and cares for children. She has a host of young girls working for her in some stories -- in others, she is a cannibal. The parallels are all there.
There's more: Yubaba has a twin sister, Zeniba. In Russian myth, there's typically three hags (all sisters), but the similarity is unmistakable. And of course there's the bathhouse itself. In both Russian and Japanese myth, the bathhouse is a magical place where the spirits take over at midnight. Which is precisely what happens in Spirited Away.
And oh yeah, there's a two-headed eagle (a symbol of old Russia) on Yubaba's tapestry. Of course, nobody pays attention to Russia these days for reasons I can only ascribe to the Cold War.
There are plenty of elements that aren't from Russian myth. No-Face, a strange demon that leeches off of other people's personalities, changes from a benevolent ally to a monstrous thing that tries to eat everyone in the bathhouse. It moans and wails, it eats people, it's really quite gross and scary -- not for kids.
What the movie does have is charm. Love, friendship, trust -- all these things help Chichiro to survive. Her good-hearted actions save her (just like in Russian myth...most of the time) and help her defeat Yubaba at her own game.
The animation is superb. The voice acting (including the dub) is excellent. Disney is giving Japanese anime the respect it deserves. See it.
This movie IS worth seeing with your tween daughter. As in, 10 years old and up.
Movie Review: This anime is every bit as wonderful as we heard that it was
Summary: 5 Stars
To say that "Spirited Away" is a Japanese anime that reminds you of "Alice in Wonderland" is very true but extremely simplistic. The literary reference is intended to emphasize the overwhelming creativity of creator Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke," "Kiki's Delivery Service," "Castle in the Sky") and is not to suggest that this film is some sort of Japanese allegory of Lewis Carroll's surreal children's classic (not to say that you cannot find some intriguing parralels between the two). What I am and everybody else who makes this comparison is trying to convey to you is that the world to which 10-year-old Chirho (voiced by Rumi Hiiragi & Daveigh Chase) is as much a wonderland as what confronted Alice down the rabbit hole, even if it is just a bathhouse in this case. The story begins with a sullen Chirho moping about in the back of the family car as her parents take her to their new home in a new city. Then her father takes a fateful wrong turn and they discover what appears to be an abandoned theme park. But then her parents discover mountains of food, which they start greedily consuming. As Chirho explores the park things start to change and the spirits start to come out. Before she knows what has happened, her parents have been changed into pigs and Chirho finds herself in the land of the spirits. Her quest to rescue her parents and find her way home has begun.
"Spirited Away" is not as rich of a visual feast as some classic examples of anime such as "Akira" and "Metropolis," in part because Miyazaki disdains computer animation in favor of traditional animated cels. Even if there is not the overwhelming visual display of these other films there is still the attention to detail. But ultimately the reason why this is the biggest money making film in the history of Japan is because of the story, which has almost as much emotional impact on the audience as "Grave of the Fireflies" (that is a mondo compliment from my perspective because "Grave" is the one anime that I decided to own and not just rent). Consequently, it is not surprising that this film took over the top spot in Japanese history from "Titanic," because they both combine emotional stories with compelling visuals. I have been waiting a long time for this movie to come out on DVD (What? This film come to the Zenith City? Are you joking?), and it was every bit as good as I could have ever hoped.
The Japanese title "Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi" literally translates as "The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro," which will make only partial sense to you after you see the film. I was not surprised that this film was nominated for an Oscar as the Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, but I was surprised, and gratified, that it won. I have been wondering what the current state of animated art would be in the world today if they had started giving this particular Oscar out a decade earlier and anime like "Akira," "Metropolis," and "Grave of the Fireflies" were receiving wider attention if not flat out winning the award. "Spirited Away" is just the latest opportunity to open the door to the wonders of anime for an even wider audience.
Movie Review: Where was this when I was growing up?
Summary: 5 Stars
When this movie was released, in a perfect world, the entire board of directors of the Disney corporation should have sunk on their knees and committed seppuku. This is what innovation looks like, and, in spite (or because of) of its unrelenting weirdness, it's the sort of thing kids can really enjoy - I think, although not being a kid anymore myself, I can't be sure.Spirited Away is a classic fable, mixing the conventions of European and Russian fairy tales with elements of Japanese folklore and contemporary culture. A young girl, Chihiro, somewhat bored and spoiled to begin with, loses her parents to a curse and is trapped in a world of gods and spirits, and undergoes a self-transformative journey which is rarely trite or dully moralizing. What sets it above many similiar animated fables is the sense of danger that is generated - things in this world are so drastic and bizzare that you actually find yourself wondering if the expected happy ending will result.
The grotesquery in the film is extreme, and I guess parents should be warned about it; the most striking things include a spirit which devours people (not fatally) and later vomits copiously, a scene in which the male lead in dragon form is badly wounded and bleeds from the mouth, and a scene that actually distrubed me in which a giant baby threatens to break Chihiro's arm. That giant baby is just plain creepy. I don't think kids, who are often more bloodthirsty than they are given credit for, would object to any of this; parents might be more effected.
The message - touching on the standard themes of true love and courage - is more convincing than usual, possibly because so much of what Chihiro accomplishes really does result from her own courage, and is not handed to her on a silver platter by a fairy godmother. A minor scene where she sprints down the length of a rickety bridge is especially effective. The romance, also, is not the overly sanitized kind you usually find in fairy tales; the male lead, Hako, has a dark side, and seems like an actual being rather than an impossible abstract.
Even those Americans who are hip enough to call Japanese animation 'anime' probably have a somewhat limited view of it. Most of these people (and I hope I don't offend anyone with this generalization) are male, between fourteen and thirty years of age, and addicted to stylized sex and violence (this is me). The anime which has been released in this country is generally targeted at them, and many of them seem to assume because of this that all anime is of that type. While I can't overstate by admiration for series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Spirited Away is proof that the minds of contemporary Japan are capable of very different things. The most striking difference between this and other modern anime is in the character design - Chihiro is not particularly attractive. Hako tends more toward the classic bishounen, but many of the other characters are completley grotesque. This has always been Miyazaki's style, and makes the story much easier to believe.
The only way in which I believe I could have enjoyed this film more is if I had been fifteen years or so younger when I saw it. It's the quintessential family film, and far from being a Japanese oddity, deserves to be the staple of a new generation of American youth.
Movie Review: I can't say enough about this incredible film!
Summary: 5 Stars
My first introduction to Spirited Away was a tape at the Chicago Comic Convention. Having heard the hype for the film, and finding the tape for sale there, I took it home and watched it at 2 in the morning. Well, let me say that even though the quality was off a bit, I was hooked! I watched it probably every other day for the next month.Within a few weeks, I became the lead editor for the film at Countdown to Spirited Away on the site Countingdown.com, and soon had obtained a DVD from overseas.
But wait you say, you bought an overseas copy yet you're reviewing the American DVD? Yes I am, for I have both in my collection now. And let me say that the work that John Lasseter and his crew did for the English dub makes it one of the best English dubs I have ever heard (eclipsing the work done for Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke).
The film is a very simple story. Chihiro, a listless and spoiled 10-year-old girl is moving with her parents. taking a wrong turn, they find themselves in a world of spirits where Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs. Chihiro must brave her way through this strange world and survive, but can she return her parents to normal and find her way home?
That premise is all I will say, as anymore would destroy the story. Nowadays, there is literal fluff available for children. i've seen parents nod off and wish the world would end before most films, but I've sat through countless showings of this film, and everytime, I've seen people enthralled by what was on that screen. I heard no crying children, no children squirming in their seats. I attended a sneak preview with 19 of my animation friends and they all loved it (my friend's mother has a habit of nodding off through films, but she stayed awake through all 2 hours of Spirited Away).
The DVD contains the original Japanese dialogue, as well as the French and English dubs. There are subtitles included as well as a few specials. PIXAR studios' John Lasseter (a close personal friend to director Hayao Miyazaki) has a 2 minute opening monologue about his love for the film.
There is also a segment called 'The Art of Spirited Away,' a very 'weak' segment hosted by Jason Marsden (the voice of Haku in the English dub), that explains bringing the film to the US.
On the second disc, there are selected storyboards (images drawn by Miyazaki to explain the film in visual form), as well as a 50 minute special from Japanese TV that is the most in depth making of for this film you will find. Watch as the staff finds themselves under pressure, and you can see the tension building in Miyazaki's face. There is even 30 minutes of movie trailers from Japan (while most of tehm follow a repetitive manner, it would have been nice to put in trailers from the French release and the wonderful English trailer).
The disc is lacking in a few areas for features (my overseas copy has the full storyboards instead of selected storyboard sequences), but I'm just glad that the film will finally be seen by people. After the lackluster ad campaign that Disney did for this filmback in September, the DVD release will probably prove to them that kids can go just as wild over Miyazaki's films as they do for Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.
Movie Review: "What happened to my spell? Only love can break it"
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many outstanding aspects about this film that contribute to place it among the best anime productions I have seen in my life. It all starts with the animation, since the attention to detail in Miyazaki's work is seldom experienced. I could not help gasping when in one of the scenes I saw the perfect reflection of Chihiro on the window of a train in which she was traveling. These are the kind of details that give the production a realism that is really hard to find. The second crucial element is the story itself, which is proof of a prodigious imagination, and which without a doubt can be experienced several times without generating boredom in the spectator. Finally, and maybe this is the most striking aspect of all, this is a movie that can be appreciated by audiences of all ages, because there is something to take away for everyone. I can only imagine how interesting it will be for my daughter to watch this film as a kid, teenager and adult, since there are things to discover at each level of maturity.
Chihiro, the main protagonist of the story, is a ten-year-old girl who is moving with her parents to a new city. She is the typical kid nearing adolescence, and therefore, is unhappy with the world, her parents in particular, and shows no interest in anything. When looking for their new house, a wrong turn leads them to a mysterious place that looks like an abandoned theme park, but when night falls quicker than expected, Chihiro finds herself all alone in a world full of spirits. There are no words to describe the astounding magical world in which she is immersed, and the transformation the character undergoes is as mesmerizing as it is revealing.
When a few years ago I watched Princess Mononoke I thought I had experienced Miyazaki at the top of his game, but this film gives it a run for its money. Bottom line is that both works should be required watching for every fan of the genre. People that are looking for an introduction to anime can find no better place to start than with "Spirited Away". The only drawback is that it will create a tough benchmark for future experiences to match.
In terms of the Extras, the disc that has the film, also has a piece on the Art of Spirited Away, where Miyazaki shares some of the "secrets" behind his inspiration and peers and coworkers talk about the wonderful qualities of this magnificent director. In most cases I would say that the praise was scripted and disregard it as such, but in this case it really rings true, and it is entertaining and insightful to watch. This segment also includes commentary on the challenges faced with the translation, and on the steps that were put in place to conserve the original intent of the film. This is extremely important, especially in the anime / manga genre, where sadly, lousy translations that mangle the product are not uncommon.
The Extras in the additional disc were not really worth watching, and I felt like they were there just as a way to make this a two-disc edition. Nevertheless, the rest of the product is so outstanding that I could not bring myself to lower my rating.