Visually engaging movie that you probably won't care about

Rating: 6/10 (24 September 2002)

Lyrically beautiful animation? Yes.
Engrossing in parts? Yes.
Representative of themes and mythologies hopelessly foreign to the Western audience? Possibly.
Again, I just didn't get it. I didn't get it with 'Princess Mononoke' and I didn't get it with this picture either.
Ever since I watched the anime epic "Akira," some 12 years ago, I have been a fan of the genre. In fact, having spent much of my formative years in the living room of a childhood friend of Japanese descent watching tapes of shows (on Sony Betamax, of course) his relatives had sent form Japan, I have tracked the incredible heights the art form has achieved in the land of the rising sun. So for me, much of the animation in "Spirited Away" is old hat. Maybe I'm harder to impress than the average American. Maybe I have yet to locate an anime experience cooler than "Akira." Maybe I've decided that Disney does it better after all anyway. But the animation in this film, while impressive and filled with entertaining characters and visions, was not huge.
Which leaves us with the plot. To which I can only say, "Huh?" I am gratified to have absorbed some of the analysis I've read on IMDb which helped me understand the meaning of at least one of the film's characters -- the strangely poetic "No Face" -- I fear the rest of the story failed to connect with me at all. Assuming the folks who translated the picture into English subtitles were able to accurately retain the meaning of the dialogue, and assuming that the film's themes were intended to be recognized not just by the average Japanese audience, we are left with a story that seemed, finally, rather pointless.
***SPOILERS*** I mean, in the end, Chihiro, through integrity and determination, is able to thank the river god, Haku, who kept her from drowning as a smaller child? Excuse my French, but BFD! ***END SPOILERS***
I just didn't care. And all the disembodied heads and soot creatures and giant babies and large-headed witches and talking toads and flying dragons couldn't make me care. Not by a long-shot.
So, we're left with a longish, visually engaging movie that you probably won't care about.
You could do worse, I suppose.
This movie review by Erik Gloor