A Masterpiece - in any medium

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 2002)

Every external review I've read so far reads like and infomercial. Well, so does this one. It's amazing!
Do you want to be just as dazzled as the kids in the audience?
Do you want to share the experience - to commune with hundreds around you - like why you GO OUT to a movie in the first place?
Do you want to access a foreign aesthetic in a congenial, vivid way, that you've never experienced before?
Do you want to see state-of-the-animation art and sound and story AND English dubbing combined in one film?
Do you want to see an animated feature that won the Berlin Film Festival against all other comers, including live action?
Do you want to see not just moving pictures, but moving PAINTINGS?
Then see this film!
I was lucky enough to see it in a packed house at the Disney restored and operated El Capitan movie palace in Hollywood. I have the feeling, that wherever Spirited Away is exhibited, Disney, who is the distributor, will only allow it to be shown on the best screens in town. Anyway, don't wait for the video. See it in the theater, then get the DVD when it's released.
Now, does this sound like an infomercial? You bet. But the difference here is, that it's not hype. It's all true. The plot has been outlined elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. Just a few things that appeal to me personally:
Despite the Western trappings of a suburban family moving to a new house and the theme park setting, the central location of a bathhouse reminds me that this is a Japanese film, with Japanese sensibilities and Japanese aesthetic. I feel like I'm watching a synthesis of Zen and Shinto and Noh and maybe even a little Sumo (you'll recognize that reference when you see it).

Many of the Japanese mythical allusions which many of the characters are making are lost on me, but the wonderful artistry of the depictions makes their obscurity that much more charming. I really like "No Face," especially in the beginning: a real spook, and because of the dramatic mask it wears, one I'd imagine is a stock character which Japanese children are familiar with.
The dragon, at once fierce, because I'm a Westerner, and sympathetic, because of its plight: there is an amazing scene where it is being devoured, in flight, by birds - ORIGAMI birds!
The inside of the bathhouse: It's the most exciting, delicious, nightmarish thing I've seen since I was a little kid watching that house of naughty boys in Pinocchio's dream.
This flick has pushed my buttons - the right buttons - so I could go on and on. So I'd better stop.
Pleeeeeze see Spirited Away. NOW!