Spirited Away

Rating: 5/10 (23 April 2015)

There are plenty of strengths from movies being animated. They have free reign to show whatever they want to. Meaning, nothing is out of the limits, they can create any monster, person, or item they wish. One limitation would be the creditability of the film. Most critics will often over look animated films simply because they are animated. If Spirited Away was live action, almost all of the magic in the movie would be removed. Most of the characters shown in the movie would not be possible to use without animation. One of the key elements to Spirited Away is its strange storyline and overall theme of the movie. The uniqueness of the film is by far the main engine driving this movie. I for one have not seen a story like this before, especially not in any Pixar or Disney films. I was not expecting the story to play out in the way it did. I thought she would casually discover these monsters as she was adjusting to the new school. I did not expect her to be trapped with all of these monsters and would not be allowed to escape. I also did not expect the film to take place in a bath house. This is by far one of the reasons as to why this film separates itself from Disney and Pixar. At times the movie was pretty graphic and blood was shown. Blood is rarely shown in animated movies directed towards a younger audience. As far as approaches to animation, I could see a difference in the way the movies are made. Pixar animation seems brighter, bolder, more defined. It has been a while since I have seen an animated Disney film. I cannot find a clear cut political or environmental message in the movie. The only theme that really stood out to me was when her parents got transformed in to pigs because they were eating too much.