Too Many Fundamentals Got "Spirited Away" Here.

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2003)

The Best Animated Feature Oscar winner of 2002 is an odd cinematic product that makes very little sense and seems interminable at times (running approximately 125 minutes total). The film comes from Asian writer/director Hayao Miyazaki, a noted animator who has been in the medium for over 30 years. "Spirited Away" concerns a young girl who is moving with her parents to a new home, but a detour along the way forces the youth to grow up quicker than expected. An old abandoned theme park is discovered and soon her parents have turned into pigs and she is forced into a mystical world of large frogs and other strange creatures. Now she must find a way to get her parents back to their human forms and return to her rightful place in the world. Overall the animation goes beyond the Toonami realm and is technologically impressive. Also the musical score is reminiscent of that from "The Last Emperor" and it gives the film an added dimension that it desperately needed. The look and sound of the movie definitely save the day as the story is a pure mess. "Spirited Away" is too long and dull for children and is much too disjointed for most adults to get anything out of. Still an interesting movie, but far from as great as many would lead you to believe. 4 stars out of 5.