Amazingly sensitive and imaginative

Rating: 10/10 (10 March 2008)

I only recently saw Spirited Away and I was extremely pleased with it. I searched out some of the negative comments out of curiosity to see what possibly could some people NOT like about this movie. Most reasons pointed to the lack of character development and the lack of a real story that made sense. In other words they expected something that fits perfectly together as often happens in all Disney movies. Not to say that Disney movies are bad, they're just different, they're very simplistic and offer nothing more than an hour's worth of entertainment. Spirited Away blew me away, all the motifs were portrayed so carefully and subtly and with such amazing animation visuals. It combined elements of many classical popular stories that I myself was familiar with and thus able to enjoy. It is probable that individuals exposed only to the Disney "culture" which comes very very close to no culture at all is negatively surprised by this movie. For everybody else who is familiar with coming of age stories, and other stories rich with fables and with lessons will see the lessons and motifs portrayed in Spirited Away and will not JUST look for a plot line and character development, but will see beyond that to discover that the plot was fantastic and there was also plenty of character development. For those of you who haven't seen this feature I wish you GOOD viewing! Do see this film on a rainy Sunday afternoon.