Spirited Away is a memorable and captivating journey, marking a high point in the director Hayao Miyazaki's career.

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2009)

Spirited Away is perhaps the Miyazaki film that appeals most to adults, and it also happens to be one of his strangest. The film views a sullen ten-year-old girl in the middle of her family's move to the suburbs and an awkward wander into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; and a bathhouse for these creatures. The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award. The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival. Spirited Away overtook Titanic in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.
Spirited Away happens to be my favorite Studio Ghibli film. It's also undoubtedly one of the studio's best films. It's a testament to director Hayao Miyazaki's creativity that he managed to make this masterpiece so late in his career. The animation is just gorgeous. The use of color is fresh and vibrant. All the backdrops have so much detail that even if you watch the film more than once you'll still see something that you didn't notice before. Even though the film is a fantasy Miyazaki still made it as realistically as he could. For example, when Chihiro runs, she runs realistically like a little girl. It's these little details that made me like the film even more. Even though the setting is very much Japanese it's still possible to see what influenced Miyazaki (not just in Spirited Away but in his other films too). There are American influences but there are also Russian influences. Miyazaki has stated that the 1957 Soviet film The Snow Queen is one of his inspirations to work in animation. When he started his career, Miyazaki had a rough start and was thinking of leaving animation already. When he saw The Snow Queen, he admired it and continued working in anime. In September 2007, it was announced that Studio Ghibli will be distributing this film through their Ghibli Museum Library label. The plot of Spirited Away resembles that of several popular Russian fairy tales. A girl who enters a strange land, meets strange creatures, and then manages to return home. I've seen it before. Yubaba was obviously influenced by Baba Yaga, a witch-like character in Slavic folklore (her magic, her big nose, her ability to fly like a bird, and that she's the master of some place). All this may seem strange at first, but it just adds to the uniqueness of Spirited Away. This time composer Joe Hisaishi delivers a pleasant yet beautiful score. The highlight of the soundtrack is the closing song Always With Me, performed by Yumi Kimura. As in most of his films, Miyazaki includes his thoughts on the environment, childhood, friendship, work and manners. These become good lessons in the film. In conclusion, Spirited Away easily earns a perfect rating from me. I give it my highest recommendation, and it's on my list of the top ten films.