Spirited Away

Rating:
Summary: I got spirited away!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: masterpiece
Review: richly done with great vision and originality. an example of intimate, personal ideas, dreams, and conciousness translated into the anime genre. beautiful artwork from color, perspective, composition... better than princess mononoke but different. the best ever from miyazake.