Bazaar of the bizarre

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2004)

Animation is a medium with limitless storytelling potential, though Hollywood is only just realising it after years of Disneyfication. Even Pixar is guilty of pandering to Uncle Walt's family values, merely hinting at subversion so's not to cause controversy and keep those tills ringing in Ohio. Thankfully, there's no midwest in the Far East and filmmakers over there are more enlightened, shunning conservatism to create fascinating, free-wheeling adventures like Spirited Away.
This is a real flight of fancy, a delirious and gutsy spin on Alice In Wonderland that embraces weirdness, springs plenty of surprises and might make those pre-teen smartypants forget about their popcorn for a few moments with some genuine scares.
Though it frequently goes off on tangents  literally losing the plot in places  there's always so much to look at that it doesn't matter. Just go with the flow.