Beautiful music. Alice in Wonderland, Japanese style.

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2002)

We saw the French version, `Le Voyage de Chihiro', first in the cinema and again on DVD. What a marvelous film on the Alice in Wonderland theme! The film begins with 10 year-old Chihiro on the back seat of the family Audi as they drive to their new home in the suburbs. They soon find themselves at a dead end with a tunnel ahead of them. Fearless dad leads mom and Chihiro through the tunnel which takes them into an idyllic countryside where discover a ghost village. Chihiro wanders off while her parents sit down to eat. When she comes back they are transformed, and her adventures begin. Chihiro soon meets someone who tells her what she has to do to get back to the real world. The music, scored by Joe Hisaishi, makes this film a pleasure to watch. The scene of Chihiro riding the train across a water-logged landscape is an example of how well the music and drawings go together. Lovely.