An Utter Joy to Behold...

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2005)

Following the story of Chihiro, a young girl who mistakenly wanders into the spirit world with her parents, Spirited Away will be responsible, along with the CGI geniuses at Pixar, for the long-overdue downfall of Disney animation, both ideologically and visually. The story is neither simple nor predictable, and the weird and wonderful characters, locales and soundtrack are woven together with the hand of a genius director (Miyasaki) who really is at the top of his game.
This is easily the most emotionally enchanting and visually brilliant animated film I have ever seen; every cell is crafted with such vibrant wonder that 'awe-inspiring' is a phrase which will need redefining. I hope that, in time, word of mouth (through sites such as this) will elevate this film to Shawshank godliness, no less than it deserves. As a foreign film, a feature animation and a children's film, this will satisfy lovers of all three genre and convert many more to all three causes, such as I.