...this movie will take you places that you'll find hard to leave...

Rating: Null/10 (1 April 2004)

I loved this movie. It allowed me to relive the wonder and edge-of-your-seat-excitement I experienced in my childhood when I watched another similar movie, The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte). Watching Spirited Away awakened in my an almost insatiable appetite to see Neverending Story again. Although, unlike Miyazaki wondrous creation, it's German and older, although it's not animated and the special fx are a bit "dated", although it's about the coming of age of a little boy and not a little girl, the two movies are so much alike that when I watched it I had the feeling that Miyazaki's masterpiece is in fact the actualized Japanese version of this movie... The escapist premise is essentially identical: 2 children find an exit door from the mundane, from the rollerink, one through a hallway in an crying citadel, the other through a book. Both have parents too absorbed by themselves and their problems who don't have enough time for their kids' problems. In both movies self-sacrifice is a condition for survival and return to the real world. And let us not forget the friendly flying dragon which appears in both movies and is in essence a spermatozoid with the head of a labrador golden retriever... ;^) Still, I have to admit that while the Neverending Story's symbols are quite accessible, Miyazaki's symbols are much more vague. German clarity permeates through Neverending Story, while the Japanese coexistence of sharp contrasts is prevalent in Spirited Away. Still, both are colossal monuments dedicated to imagination and creativity, and if that's what you like, you shouldn't skip watching this movie!