Product Description

From one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the history of animated cinema comes the most acclaimed film of 2002. Hayao Miyazaki's latest triumph, filled with astonishing animation and epic adventure, is a dazzling masterpiece for the ages. It's a "wonderfully welcoming work of art that's as funny and entertaining as it is brilliant, beautiful, and deep" (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal). SPIRITED AWAY is a wondrous fantasy about a young girl, Chihiro, trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and return her family to the outside world. An unforgettable story brimming with creativity, SPIRITED AWAY will take you on a journey beyond your imagination. "To enter the world of Hayao Miyazaki is to experience a kind of lighthearted enchantment that is unique to the world of animation" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). It's a fantastic tale the whole family will want to experience over and over again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #724 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-15
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 125 minutes

Amazon.com
The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba (Pleshette again). The resolve, bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. MPAA Rated: PG ("Some scary moments") --Charles Solomon

DVD features
The most interesting extra feature on the two-disc set is the Nippon Television Special on the making of Spirited Away, not because it's significantly different from American making-of programs, but because the camera crew was allowed to film Miyazaki at work. It's fascinating to watch the visionary director explaining how individual movements should be animated, and even performing the little dance the frog-master does to welcome the No-Face to Yubaba's bath house. (Old animators describe Walt Disney giving similar performances, but no comparable footage exists.) It's also striking to see how intimate Studio Ghibli is, unencumbered by the tiers of management that burden American studios. The scene comparisons enable the viewer to study the storyboards for the film, which Miyazaki draws himself. These simple yet wonderfully vivid images capture the essence of a mood, a movement, an expression. "Behind the Microphone" offers a fairly standard behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the excellent English version of Spirited Away. --Charles Solomon

From The New Yorker
In his native Japan, the animator-director Hayao Miyazaki is considered a national treasure, and this movie, which he came out of retirement to complete, recently surpassed "Titanic" as that country's highest-grossing picture. It's an amazing work, filled with a visual intelligence that's meticulously composed and obscenely clever. Miyazaki's playful aesthetic is like a Japanese word that can't be adequately translated, best approximated as part Spielberg, part Dr. Seuss. So-called mature American audiences may be put off at first by a film that is essentially a cartoon about a fearful ten-year-old girl. But as the hero, Chihiro, sees her parents turned into swine and flees into an alternate world filled with the creatures of Japanese mythology and of Miyazaki's own invention, any distracting sense of childishness falls away. Left to savor are virtuoso touches, like a flock of birds that becomes useless paper, a train that glides along the surface of a lake, and one of the great villains of all time, Yubaba, who looks like a bobble-headed grandmother on speed. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

One of Ghibli's best!
When I first got into Miyazaki/Ghibli movies, I started out with Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. I liked them so much I bought EVERY other movie they released, hoping the rest would be just as good, and they are. After Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away is my fave. What I like about it is of course the story, but also the fact that this is one of Studio Ghibli's most deeply/richly colored movies. Ghibli seems to favor the softer more airy and light colored approach, but this has a really deep almost water color look to it.

Praise for Spirited Away
I love Miyazaki films for their detailed and beautiful illustrations and their unique stories. This one is about a strong little girl who has to pass certain obstacles before she can save her parents. This is a good family movie and possesses an admirable moral: by being patient and quick when the circumstance calls for it, you will be able to hold on until you reach your goal. A rich and worthy animated film.

I'm Looking for Some Help Here; Can Anime Get Better?
A better question might be; should it get better? "Spirited Away" has been accepted as a masterpiece by the film industry, anime fans and those who blindly believe what they are told. It sure sounds like I'm about to pick a fight, but actually I'm getting a little introspective and asking you to do the same. I could easily write a 10 page essay about anime, this film and the state of the art of animation. I'll try to avoid that here. However, after watching this film with my family, a big pile of question appeared. This is both a testament to this films power and to the fact that many people just don't like or understand this style of film art. I am once again divided on my opinion of a film. The only way to cut through the fog in my brain is to (once again) break my thoughts into pieces.

-WHAT I THINK OF THIS FILM
Artistically speaking, this film is brilliant. My family was divided about this film. My wife had problems with the jerky animation style. My 10 year old daughter loved it. My 6 year old son did not like it. We all thought it was a bit too long (especially near the end). I don't know what you would take out. I think there might be some scenes that could have been removed to little negative affect if we never knew they existed. But knowing they exist precludes the idea of removing them. The one thing we all agreed on was the whole river spirit revelation. We gave out a collective "HUH?" This is pretty typical in anime; if the story doesn't get you there, take a shortcut. That was probably the only unexpected thing I could criticize. The other thing I found myself criticizing was the actual animation. I know what anime is and I know why it is, and I sort of expected it, but this film really got me thinking about the state of anime and why it hasn't moved to another level.

-A QUICK EDUCATION
Disney style animation is what is known as "Full" animation. Simply put; for every 24 frames in a second, there are 24 unique drawings to complete the required motion. By this, you get a very smooth, natural feeling motion. In anime, which uses mostly limited animation, in the 24 frames of one second there might be 12 drawings or less in some cases. Anime will actually use a static image with a moving camera to imply motion. The result is a somewhat choppy or jerky motion. This is all done to save money due to tight budget constraints. Though financially cheap, these techniques have been mastered to a very high level.

-WHAT I THINK OF ANIME
I think that good anime challenges how animation looks (see "Animatrix" for a compilation of great examples). Bad anime is pure trash. Good anime artists really have a knack for capturing the essence of the human form even more so than Disney. Characters seam to develop effortlessly in anime; one little act or a short phrase or a telling reaction immediately establishes character. In "Spirited Away" even minor characters have strong presence. The best anime has characters we can all identify with very quickly. This film produces that in spades. Western animation is not so adept at this. I find the limited animation distracting at times. It is because of this that I don't watch a lot of it. I enjoy artistic as well as technical achievements. Sometime anime is fully animated (almost by accident). It's at these times I realize how much more brilliant anime could be.

-WEST V EAST; THE $275,000,000 GORILLA IN THE CORNER
I've actually read debates that compared Western "Disney" style animation to "anime" (http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.09/5.09pages/osmondanime2.php3). I would argue this was like debating the merits of chocolate ice cream vs. vanilla ice cream; fairly pointless. However, things have changed enough in recent years that the debate can not be so easily dismissed anymore; not if you are being honest with yourself. "Spirited Away" cost $17MM to produce. Its global box office receipts totaled $275,000,000. Who knows what the DVD sales total is? The same year this film was released, Disney's "Brother Bear" made $250,000,000. Disney has not released budget information, but I'm certain it cost more than $17 million. This begs the question; is it time for anime to take the next step into full animation?

-WOULD MONEY KILL FREEDOM
Like life in general, the more money there is at stake, the more pressure there is to succeed. Some might argue that the really cool stories and audacious subject matter that anime produces would not happen if a big budget were put on the line. I would argue that $17 million is a big risk; in for a penny, in for a pound. That's why I limit the idea of fully animated anime to feature films. It's worth the risk. People revere anime for what Disney does not provide; fearless, unsafe stories and edgy visuals. Is it such a stretch to think we won't pay to see what everyone complains we don't get? I think the market place has spoken.

-EXCUSES OR REASONS?
Given the financial success of the anime feature films in the past decade or so, is the use of limited animation an excuse? Or, is the art form known as anime inherently tied to the use of limited animation and the "moving Manga" traditions? I'm not expert enough about anime to provide the answer, but I think it's a question worth asking. Some in the anime business talk about how they use creative techniques and limited animation to save money, as if this is how it should always be. Personally, I think anime features are ready for full animation. Doubling the budget for "Spirited Away" (basically drawing twice as much art) would still make it a huge financial success. So money can no longer be an excuse. Many people are wowed by this film in its current form. Imagine what it would be like fully animated; mind boggling. It probably would have made even more money.

-WHAT AM I GETTING AT?
"Spirited Away" has an ambitious story, great human characters (even the spirits are human at their core) and incredible artistic vision. Anime has set new standards for what animated films should explore and this film has kept up that trend. However, as animation, anime has stayed a step behind. Though many have come to accept limited animation as an inherent part of anime, I think it's time to raise the bar on these gloriously conceived feature films. I know these artists can take animation to levels only imagined. They have the skill and the vision to set new standards. Yet, we get excuses of low budgets. Maybe for the serials and Saturday morning fare, but not these "masterpiece" feature films. If "Triplets of Belleview" can be made fully animated, why not "Spirited Away"?

If you are an artist, a fan of anime, a student of animation or a fan of fantasy I'd have to recommend this DVD. If you are a traditionalist Disney fan, then you might have a problem with the unique story telling and less than smooth animation style. I recognize and enjoy it for what it is, but I'm not going to let it off the hook for what it could have been either. The real question is; is it still anime if it's fully animated? I say yes. Anime isn't just about the animation techniques, but also the visual and story style.