Reviews of this movie have been inconsistent

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2002)

The arms on Chihiro's parents were drawn too short for their bodies, avian flight was animated way less naturalistically than bipedal movement, and with a wider release on DVD, teenagers across America will giggle during the scene where Chihiro rides a phallic dragon. But other than that, I can't think of a movie better than Spirited Away.
On moving to their new home, Chihiro and her parents are sidetracked to an abandoned amusement park. As a bathhouse of the spirit world materializes around them, Chihiro's parents mistakenly eat the indigenous food, finding themselves turned into pigs, and putting Chihiro in the position to sign away her name to the witch that runs the bathhouse, to stall for time to rescue them.
The basic theme consistent throughout the movie is the relationship between gratification, identity, and the soul. Chihiro's parents helped themselves to the forbidden food of the spirit world, unable to see beyond the hubris of their consumerism. A polluted river spirit was so in need of a bath, it was unrecognizable to those who reserve their courtesy for the most wealthy bathhouse guests. No Face, who bears the distress of also having no home, is unable to control his appetites and begins eating the bathhouse staff. Chihiro quickly learns to defer gratification to avoid becoming sidetracked. Leaving the bathhouse herself to beg the forgiveness of the witch's sister, Chiro invites the destructive No Face to go with her -- without explicitly referring to "addiction" (a testament to the genius of the film) -- saying instead she believed the pleasures of the bathhouse drove him crazy.
I think it's disgraceful how little attention this film is getting. Some bore at the San Francisco Chronicle had the nerve to say the movie was unoriginal because the transformation of Chahiro's parents into swine was like the donkey transformation scene in Pinochio, then inconsistently complain the movie was difficult to comprehend. Why didn't I hear anyone (besides me) compare Jurassic Park to Dawn of the Dead with dinosaurs, a comparison more richly earned?