Most perfect and special movie I have seen! :spoilers:

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2003)

You've probably already seen my one line summary, and thought my review is just going to be me gushing. (probably still is...) But I'm going to go through why I think this movie is so great, so you'll be able to appreciate its merits too. I've heard people saying that perhaps teenagers would be averted from this movie because of it's idiosyncrasies, but I'm 16, and my class at school who watched it loved it too. We're a varying bunch ;-). By the way, I've seen mostly all of the top 150 movies in the IMDB list, so you can't say that I haven't seen enough movies... :spoilers:
Story line: A little girl (Chihiro), is spoilt and whiny, and is moving to the suburbs with her more adventurous parents. She moans over her flowers dying, and this is the start of our hints that she isn't the perfect little girl that usually inhabits Disney cartoons. The father accelerates through the more overgrown landscape, silencing Chihiro's worries by saying 'don't worry, I've got four-wheel-drive...' They stumble upon an opening, Chihiro is apprehensive, but her parents move on and the father is eager and childish. They come upon a massive field, and the mother identifies the place as an old Amusement Park, they move further on, Chihiro seems more at ease. This is until. they find some food and she finds herself surrounded by dark spirits, and her parents have transformed into pigs... Some critics have said that the storyline is far too random, but I say that almost every occurence is intricately woven into the story, and is one in a chain of events that helps Chihiro at the end of the film. The story is certainly original and never less that enthralling and compelling, it is pure fantasy, as Miyazaki said himself. We don't (or shouldn't...) expect it to make perfect sense. Another brilliant aspect of the story is witnessing Chihiro grow from being a clingy, crying girl into an independent and purpose-filled woman.
Animation: This is exquisite, and has almost unanimous acclaim to back it up. All of the cells are hand-drawn (except the very infrequent computer graphic aided sequences). Especially on the train, at one particular time, you will be hard pressed to feel that it is animation and not actual footage. The sunsets and backgrounds are simply beautiful and colorful. As illustrated in the DVD Bonus Features, we see how Miyazaki has made it so that the characters do not move mechanically, they feel around, and tap their shoes to make them more comfortable. This defines the animation, very well thought out, intricate and lifelike. In two words, it is pure art.

Score: This enhanced my favorite scene in any film I have watched, (when Chihiro is riding Haku and they fall, her tears fall up instead of down) it is soaring and adventurous and hopeful. From the beginning of the film, the score is flowing like water, but it knows when to be silent: when Noh Face and Chihiro leave the train. This enhances the scene, making it feel contemplative and slightly suspenseful. It should have been at least nominated for Best Score at the Academy this year.
''Replayability'': You will have probably missed many of the details in this film the first time round, and it is so enjoyable that you won't be able to resist, it says on the back of my DVD case: 'Spirited Away is a spectacular DVD the whole family will want to experience over and over again', and this sums my review up.
Go see it. 10/10