So American yet so Japanese at the same time

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2005)

Remniscient of his fellow Japanese animator Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki offers us a good bath of Japanese folklore, suited in a well edited, fast paced, americanized form of animation. Miyazaki is more than a director, he's a writer. He's that kind of director that never leaves any kind of detail behind in quest to make a movie look over the top. This one was magnificent. Despite being billed as a child movie, well it ain't one, it's one of the most colorful audacious and creative anime ever made.
The setting of the plot, from the start, makes room for creativity. Trapped in a spirit world, Chihiro has to grow as a person to fight the dangers on her way back to normality and back to her parents. In an avalanche of obstacles that rivals any literary epic, Chihiro grows a willpower that will go beyond of what she every imagined. Spirited Away is the epitome of true cinema. It exploits the possibilities and the variables that cinema has to offer. Every choice Miyazaki makes for his movie is the good one. Truly astonishing.
So make the good choice too, buy this movie.