Year: 2001
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Animated films have had the unfair history of being labelled as "children's films". While there are some animated films like Cars and A Bug's Life that don't quite reach the adult demographic, there are certainly very intelligent animated films that go above and beyond. Films like The Prince of Egypt, Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away are surprising in their bold and serious vision. I first saw Spirited Away about a year ago, the film has been stuck on my mind ever since.
Spirited Away concerns a young girl named Chihiro. Her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside and Chihiro is missing her old house. Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives through a lonely land road with dead end in a tunnel. She meets a boy named Haku who tells her that her parents and she are in danger and they must leave the place. She runs to her parents and find that they have turned into pigs. Further, the place is a bathhouse of spirits, monsters, gods and ghosts owned by the witch Yubaba. Now Chihiro counts on Haku to save her parents and return to their world.
With every film Hayao Miyazaki makes, he sets the bar higher and higher. He is the undisputed King of Japanese Animation, constanly delivering beautiful yet strange stories that are a delight to the senses. Spirited Away is an intoxicating wonder that is filled with astonishing visuals and enticing characters. Miyazaki's world is as strange as it is unique, an unfailingly intelligent film that is full of curious nightmares and stirring fantasies,
In many ways Spirited Away is the Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland, however it can be argued that this film is more imaginative and thought provoking. The hand-drawn animation burst with energy and excitement, it is a detailed world without boundaries or limitations. Anything and everything is possible in this film, which is quite unpredictable. We see a dragon, a river spirit, a giant baby that has incredibly destructive temper tantrums.Through these spirits she must change her outlook on life in order to get home, it is quite fantastic.
In conclusion, while in North America Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney are recognized as great animation studios, perhaps the greatest animation studio in the world is Studio Ghibli. They have given us such classics like Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and the incredible Spirited Away. This particular film shows that the imagination has no limits, and is perhaps the greatest animated film ever made. Praise it! 5/5
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