Spirited Away
The most interesting extra feature on the two-disc set is the Nippon Television  Special on the making ofSpirited Away, not because it's significantly  different from American making-of programs, but because the camera crew was  allowed to film Miyazaki at work. It's fascinating to watch the visionary  director explaining how individual movements should be animated, and even  performing the little dance the frog-master does to welcome the No-Face to  Yubaba's bath house. (Old animators describe Walt Disney giving similar  performances, but no comparable footage exists.) It's also striking to see  how intimate Studio Ghibli is, unencumbered by the tiers of management that  burden American studios. The scene comparisons enable the viewer to study the  storyboards for the film, which Miyazaki draws himself. These simple yet  wonderfully vivid images capture the essence of a mood, a movement, an  expression. "Behind the Microphone" offers a fairly standard  behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the excellent English version ofSpirited Away.--Charles  Solomon