Spirited Away

This movie is a must watch for the whole family. It had very strong fairy tale vibes for me, but with a Japanese bend to them. I highly enjoyed it as an adult and then shared it with my kids. Beautiful story telling and art work throughout. Would definitely recommend.

A wonderful movie for the family. My 5 year old loves this movie so much that I had to buy the disc. He even remembers the little girls name, Tahiro, even though it was only mentioned a few times because the spirits took her name and renamed her Sin. If you want a great movie for a family movie night that everyone would enjoy, this is one of the classics that should be on your list along with The Golden Compass, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

All his movies are superb. I haven't seen one I did not like. Will look at this one again and again.

If you haven't seen this and are a fan of anime or Ghibli, you need to see it.

This movie is forever in my rotation. Almost everything from these guys is amazing. Just get it.

Very insightful film

This is a must see animated film - a must see!

Always a pleasure to sit and watch this movie. It’s got a good story and is great for any age.

ジブリ好きな姪にプレゼント

J’adore ce film.

Having worked my way through the Ghibli's, this was the obvious film to add to the list but I would have to admit that whilst I would concede that this is perhaps the most impressive and mature of all that studio's film's I have seen to date, it was also the most disturbing and visually arresting. It is probably a given that the quality of illustration is exceptional with Japanses animation but the usual attention to detail and the familiar that is typical of this studio's work is no longer as re-assuring as in other efforts as it serves to make the film's story more disturbing. There are elements such as Yubaba's initial summoning of the heroine Chihiro, the giant baby and the multi-armed character who looks like a Monty Python character which make the film slightly uncomfortable for me and almost served to push the film into a nightmarish world where everyday things take on more sinister meanings. In many respects, it is a modern fairy tale yet a million miles from the sugar-coated efforts that the inferior Disney studio would be likely to produce and more in keeping with the grotesque elements of some of these stories that children's writer seemed to relish in in the 19th century. This is no doubt a visionary and fantastic piece of film making and the opening 30 minutes is absolutely sensational. Ghibli have probably never made anything quite as compelling at the first half hour. In may respects this is a film of epic proportions and there are times when I felt that the film was a bit flabby - the supposed "comic" elements discussed by one reviewer on Amazon are not really present in my opinion. I didn't like the bath scene with the filthy monster and an air of the uncertain prevades much of the film which ensures that it is not as relaxing and theraputic a watch as something like the visual candy of "Totoro." Whilst it is a long film, your attention is grabbed from the first frame however. As a piece of cinema, I think that this film is worthy of it's reputation. It is a masterpiece but in the same way that something like a Goya painting or a Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" are. i.e They both are slightly unsettling. However, I would have to say that the almost Gothic nature of some of the scenarios (albeit refracted through a very Japanese mentality) does make this film's 12 rating appropriate and I would have to say that this is not a film for young children unless you want to traumatise them! I did not enjoy "Spirted away" as much as "Whisper of the heart" and whilst Ghibli do have the ability to stear even their children's films away from the maudlin and sentimental in many of their efforts, this film doesn't even hint at being the least bit saccarine.

NOTE: The voice actors cited below are from the English language version.Spirited Away is a glorious fantasy; it's a poignant, sometimes dark and visually enchanting masterpiece miles ahead of recent Disney fare. This is partly because the film's not afraid to have morally ambiguous characters. Aside from Chihiro (Daveigh Chase) and to an extent Haku (Jason Marsden) there's no clear heroes or villains; even the main antagonist Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), a greedy, sadistic witch, has some love in her, and even the good humans like Lin (Susan Egan) have their mean sides. Throughout the film I was impressed by how seriously it takes itself; a lot of care has been lavished not just on the animation but also the story and characters. It's a breathtakingly original piece which creates a world as detailed and crisply presented, in the visuals and storytelling, as Star Wars'.While moving house Chihiro and her parents (Lauren Holly and Michael Chiklis) take a wrong turn and stumble across a seemingly derelict theme park. They discover an unstaffed buffet and despite Chihiro's protests her parents eat up, promising to pay the bill once someone arrives. Before they can, however, they're turned into pigs by Yubaba, whose underlings laid out the food for customers at her spiritual bathhouse. Aided by Haku, a young man and Yubaba's apprentice, Chihiro finds a job in the bathhouse so she can throw herself at the witch's mercy.The world of the spirits is so rich that this film rewards repeat viewings. Characters and their natures are presented with great subtlety; you're invited to soak up this strange place like a bathing spirit. I loved a spirit called No-Face (Bob Bergen), whose story arc could be a film of its own. He's a creature of emotion and atmosphere, produced by a deep imagination. He has a scene with Chihiro which contains almost no dialogue and is just a procession of imagery. You don't often see that in "children's films"; in the west we've become used to homogenised work and the placement of profit before art. Spirited Away, which overtook Titanic in Japan's box office, exposes our apathy and cynicism simply by being as good as it is. The animation isn't treated arbitrarily but like an actual medium. This is the kind of film you could watch on mute and have a deeply rewarding experience. Every detail reeks of lavish care; you can get lost in this world. The story's told with equal craft, relying on magic and adventure as opposed to an action climax preceded by a "journey", like a video game ending in a last boss. Spirited Away's entire second act has only one setting - the bathhouse - yet is more inventive than many films with several dozen.

When her parent's spirits are consumed by their own greed, Chihiro must work in a bath house to find a way to rescue them, only for her to become sidetracked in a troubled placeThe first anime film to win an Academy Award brings together a collection of vivid imagination and collective youthful experience and innocence from acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki that is certainly worth seeing for numerous reasons.This film to me has a somewhat emotional impact. When I was young I loved watching the Pokémon series along with Card Captors and others and having been absent from such animation for many years, watching this film revives that love of careful and beautiful cartoon styling with an exuberant fantasy and imagination that is irreplaceable.This was partly the reason I watched it but for a better reason reviewers had critically acclaimed this picture as a work of genius and it is easy to see why.Pixar are the current global kings of animation seemingly unbeaten in box office records across the world. Creating stories revolving around real world issues but containing imagination adds to their appeal, none more so than Toy Story and Wall-E. Spirited Away follows a similar attraction, bringing in many traditions of its Japanese maker.The film is a spirited fantasy that creates wonderful illusions of possibilities. There are brilliantly designed soot like spiders, a humungous Granny typed villain, pig parents, a gold given anything eating no faced monster and a floating train ride. The design is something otherworldly that can' be explained unless seen. However it is what these pictures and designs symbolise in the stories' context.The greedy self obsessed parents, the contemplation of thoughts and a slowdown on the train, the impact of friendship against adversity and the manipulation of gold and other riches in a working environment. This is not just fancy showy art this is meaningful and picturesque entertainment.Whilst the same could be said for Pixar this 2001 release has in my opinion one of the finest scores to grace an animation. The complete juxtaposition of music and moment may bring tears to your eyes. The train scene near the end is the best moment as signs fly by and the day turns into night and people move on, a heavenly scene of pure movie magic.On first viewing I was astounded by the film's conformity to many ideologies such as magic, parenthood, slavery, love, lust, youth and manipulation. Come the final showdown there was a multitude of quick fired ideologies that mashed everything together and left the film hovering for the viewer's personal interpretation.There are a few unanswered questions and a few eyebrows may rise and that's also part of the beauty as this, without a shadow of a doubt, contains all the necessary elements to entertain anyone of any age, truly brilliant.9/10