Not A Great Film.

Rating: 4/10 (18 April 2003)

`Spirited Away' is well animated film but suffers from a poor story and uninteresting characters. You can add all the freaky dragons and netherworld spirits you like and marvel at their strangeness but what do they add to the story? There was no intrigue and no real character development. to me it felt like watching a anime version of the Nutcracker Suite except with over the top symbolism (things like the greedy parents turning into pigs).

`Mulholland Drive' accomplishes much better the kind of storytelling through emotion `spirited away' attempts.
4/10