Stunningly Beautiful

Rating: Null/10 (24 May 2004)

If you don't like this film (and it is a film, not an anime or a cartoon or a child's movie) then I pity you for you have become so cynical, so deeply pretentious and portentous that you have lost the ability to feel or believe.
First of, from the opening DVD screen, you realize quite how stunningly beautiful Spirited Away is. I do not have the words to describe the pure majesty of the animation. If, at first, one feels a little out of place, this is soon conquered as Chihiro's tale grabs an enthralls.
The plot is entertaining enough for the adult viewer. The soundtrack is achingly gorgeous, and many of the characters deeply compelling. No-Face, the anonymous melancholy man child being one of the most vivid. There are also undertones of Dante's Inferno, as a series of ethereal spirits guide young Chihiro through her quest to save her parents.
Those expecting a linear narrative (most of the critics of this, it would seem) have obviously seen too many Disney cartoon, and know little of the eastern spirituality which pervades Spirited Away. Those with an open mind, a willingness to learn and to escape, will be utterly moved by the astonishingly beautiful, melancholy and captivating visual poetry.
To me, Spirited Away sits alongside Life Is Beautiful in the "happy section" of my DVD collection.