Not exactly easy to be "Spirited Away" by this film when it takes so long and has too many slow moments in between

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2006)

Spirited Away is best-known for being the film that out of nowhere steals the Academy Award for best animated film from Lilo and Stitch and Ice Age, two very successful animated flicks that had come out at the same year. When I mean stole it, I do in fact mean stole it. Spirited Away is the kind of film that really points out what is wrong with animation today: not that much of a story, very inconsistent animation, lack of closure, and just too many slow moments. Clocking in at over two hours long, this is one of the longer animated movies to come out in recent years, and despite the few humorous moments, it isn't that great overall. Making an astonishing 200 million dollars overseas, it established Hayao Miyazaki as the "Walt Disney of Japan."
This movie revolves around a clumsy yet courageous little girl named Chihiro who loses her parents because they ate food that belonged to spirits. As a result of this, she goes through a series of trials and adventures to get back to the regular world, or else be doomed to forever work in a bathhouse for spirits. Along the way, she meets up with Haku, a boy determined to take her back into the real world. Throughout the film, she meets an astonishingly large cast of characters, ranging from a greedy old lady that runs the bathhouse to some cute little spider-like critters. Along the way some of these critters help, some try to kill her, and others carry awful curses that plague their soul and also threatens to ruin the bathhouse.
Miyazaki weaves an interestingly bizarre story, yet he stretches it way too long resulting in many dull and many, many slow moments. There are some scenes that way too prolonged and others that some may find utterly pointless. On the technical side though, there is a mixed bag. Unlike most translated animated films, this one stands out with very good voice work, and that is partly thanks to John Lasseter, otherwise known as one of the leading men of Pixar and director of the Toy Story movies.
The animation on the other hand, is quite inconsistent. In several points of the film, there is an ugly mix of realistic animation with cartoony animation with an anime-style background. It doesn't mesh too well, seeing a realistically-drawn little girl with two goofy-looking animals and a very detailed old woman all together, sharing the spotlight for a minute or two. The mix of computer animation and regular animation doesn't work either. If you are going to work on a film, make it consistent, or at least make it look consistent. Beauty and the Beast contains some computer animation, but it is almost impossible to notice because it is done so well (The Beast dancing with Belle has the most computer animation in the film).
As the climax rapidly approaches, it is hard to even find the mood. While on one hand there is suffering, in the corner of the screen there is some funny animation involving a hamster and a small bird trying so hard to keep up with the main character, Chihiro. It is hard to feel sorry and be saddened by the depressing cries of Chihiro, when we see the hamster trying to knit but to no avail. I found myself laughing during scenes in which there was supposed to be a gloomy mood, which is both frustrating and also embarrassing since I was watching it with some other people.
Bottom Line: Best animated film of 2001? I don't think so, that title belongs to Ice Age. While it is an interesting and at times intriguing story, it is ruined by the conflicting animation, the amount of time it takes to tell the tale, and the failure to bring any drama when it is supposed to because of what is going on. The ending also arrives rather unexpectedly and comes up a bit short. While it sometimes looks pretty and sometimes is fun to watch, overall it is still lacking. At least it finally breaks the trend of Asian-made movies with bad dubbing by proving some excellent English-speaking voice talent. Spirited Away: won't blow you away, it will not totally frustrate you, but will not convince you to watch it again.