Early candidate for best film of the decade, Miyazaki's masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 2002)

I, like most people, came to know Miyazaki's films by Princess Mononoke. When I heard of this film's release, I was beyond excited. I didn't expect it to beat Mononoke, but I expected it to be really good. I was mistaken. It is better than Mononoke. It isn't really good, it's an animation masterpiece. I was in tears, not because the movie was moving, or happy, but because I had never had such fun in a movie theater.
Spirited Away is brilliant and vibrant, filled with the characters that nightmares and dreams are formed from. The animation is eye-popping to say the least...not just in color, sophistication or texture, but in MOVEMENT. The film flows like water, not like the stiff stone-like characters seen in most anime films, such as Ghost in the Shell or Jin-Roh. The film itself is so magnificently well-played...nobody in the film is really evil, but every step of the way is exciting.
As for the dubbing, it was excellent...while ALL other anime films looked so silly in their dubbed forms, I think this film is nearly perfect...there were maybe one or two moments in the film when I was reminded that I was watching it in a different language than its original form.
As a lover of fine cinema, animation plays a small, but vital, role in my passion. Spirited Away is amongst the best films in the medium...Miyazaki has proven himself to be a film-maker of diverse talent, and has launched himself into the first decade of a new millenium with a movie that is nothing less than timeless.