wise, witty and whimsical

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2002)

In "Spirited Away" Hayao Miyazaki has crafted a gentle, whimsical fable for our times that deals with important and universal themes in a wildly imaginative manner.
The basic plot is less "Alice in Wonderland" than based in Japanese folktales of travelling to "other worlds" and in the country's rich and polytheistic mythology, where the protagonist is eventually reminded about the truth of this world. Here, the protagonist Chihiro is whisked off to another world where her parents literally hog up the place and where spirits and gods of all manners take refuge in bath houses.
The animation is simply wonderful, if enough hasn't been said of it, details adorn every frame, and the colors are rich and warm. Hayao Miyazaki adds his fertile imagination to his country's already rich folk myth and creates sights that range from bizarrely Tim Burtonesque to whimsically cute. The score, drawing heavily on Japanese folk music, is soaring and intense, and one just feels that amazing energy charging through one's body as one beholds the film and hears its wondrous music.
But what truly makes the movie shine is its witty and wise script, that while apparently a fairy tale has important things to say about issues like greed, environmental pollution, the consequences of single, overdoting and absent parents and what it means to grow up in a world riddled with temptation.
And stay for the credits and the gentle, beautiful closing song. This is an experience to behold.
Rating: 8 out of 10