Beautiful film - comes highly recommended...

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2006)

From some of the reviews I was reading I was expecting something very trippy, but very well made. In many ways, that's exactly what I got, but if you bear in mind that this is a fantasy tale it's really not as weird as many people make it out to be. Some of the ideas and the imagery are bizarre - in fact most of them are, it must be said - but nothing feels like it was thrown in there purely to be different. It all feels like it has a place all of its own.
It's sometimes hard for animated films to draw you in and make you feel involved with the characters, but Spirited Away does this brilliantly. Even some of the stranger ones - you find yourself becoming deeply involved in their little sub-stories. The end result of all this is that it becomes a joy to watch, from beginning to end.
I would recommend this to virtually anybody who appreciates good movies, because it is so well crafted that if you approach it with an open mind and simply allow yourself to be swept along with it, you cannot help but enjoy it.