The Best Fairy Tale Ever

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2013)

'Spirited Away' was a mere random movie I rented on a whim sometime during my days in middle school and the experience of watching it during that period of my life makes this one of my most sentimental films in which I dearly hold in my heart. Not knowing what to expect, my only assumption was that this looked like it could be a good movie, since I was getting a bit into anime/manga and anything that was a cartoon appealed to me more at the time, but what I got was something more. What I took away from this was an strange epic fairytale like no other. With so much memorable imagery, coupled with an atmosphere of mystery, this is one of those stories that manage to stick with you.
While my youth offered more of a sense of alienation than friendship at the time, it felt like this movie was there for me. Things have gotten a bit better externally, but if I were to talk about the highlights of my youth, it would definitely be times like this in which I made random discoveries where I was able to find unexpected comfort during those times where it felt hard for me in a world that wasn't exactly as bad as the real world I didn't even know of, until now. I will always hold this film dear in my heart, but this is definitely a film I look forward to revisiting again.
With its dreamy feel, the film holds so much surreal beauty while retaining all of its pure emotion. 'Spirited Away' to me feels like a milestone in the genre of animated films. What 'Spirited Away' proved is that you can convey so much through animation just as much as a live action film, and I would dare say it has gone places not a lot of live action films have even treaded on. The film immersed me into its animated world like no other animated film. 'Spirited Away' is not only a great anime film, but one of the greatest films in general.