Unsettling but brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2011)

As an English viewer, I can't bring any oriental appreciations to a viewing of Spirited Away: my lifetime of English experiences make Spirited Away an even more alien experience than it is for a native Japanese audience.
But I think it is supposed to be disorienting. This odd story of little Chihiro, uprooted from her familiar neighbourhood by her parents moving, and then finding herself in a bathhouse populated by spirits, creatures, ghosts and so on following her parents turning into pigs... well, it's a long way from Disney (even if one of the characters in the US adaptation is voiced by Susan Egan, Megara in Disney's Hercules).
This superb movie is imaginative, unsettling, visually entrancing, involving and, ultimately, moving.
Any animation fan should make an effort to catch it.