View Larger Image |
Spirited Away Actor: Miyu Irino Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Animated, Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 132 minutes Studio: Walt Disney Home Video Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "Greatest animated film ever!!!"When i first watched this film i was absolutely blown away. The Music, the animation, the acting and the storyline are all top-notch and all add to the perfection of this film. Seriously, this film is perfect in every sense of the word and, i absolutely love it. Spirited away will enchant anybody who watches it no matter how old they are. I even managed to get my 45 year old dad to watch it and, no joke, he thought it was amazing. This is the highest grossing film ever in Japan and one of the highest grossing animated films in the world, which goes to show how fantastic this film is. I watched this film a total of 5 times in the first week I bought it and, it is very rare for me to watch any film twice, never mind five times in one week. Another point to make is the fact that the dubbing on this film is great. The script was slightly changed for the English version so that the words fit into the japanese speaking mouths of the characters. They really hit the nail on the head with this film and if there was one animated film i had advice anybody to get, it would be this one. " Know wonder its the highest grossing film in Japan "This movie is amazing. I saw it at my school two years ago. Me and my friend liked it so much we played it at resess. If you like anime you should buy this DVD.  "extremely forgettable"Perhaps one has to be Japanese to understand this movie. It is hardly worth reviewing, but after we rented it last night (having heard good things about it in the media - first mistake) I couldn't resist taking a look at what kind of reviews it received. Imagine my astonishment to find that this highly forgettable movie received an overall rating of 4-1/2 stars. Of course, the book Eragon also seems to be well-received by the on-line audience which reviews books and movies; perhaps there is a selection bias here as well. Anyway, my husband and I watched with growing horror as a film with no recognizable plot and almost no stable characters unfolded before us. I think it was morbid fascination that held us to the screen until the lame but anxiously awaited ending. Granted, there were some lovely scenes that would make great stills, and a few chuckles here and there. I will admit that I found the combination of sickly-sweet cuteness and frightening grotesqueness unique, if nothing else. The "monster" spirits eating people (although they were regurgitated whole later), and the prominence of nightmarish chases and scary situations made me wonder that this was PG - the rating seemed too low. Perhaps what disturbed me more (besides lack of plot) was that there were no characters who seemed to be consistent. For example, the "witch," although supposedly evil, congratulates the heroine (Chihiro) at one point for a job well done and tells her other "employees" to try to be like Chihiro. The character of "no-face" seems to be a helpful spirit, becomes a terrifying monster, and then returns to passivity for no real reason that is explained. These are just two examples of many that pervade this movie. We did have fun afterwards imagining what the TV-guide blurb for this would be if it were shown on TV. It was stranger than any strange movie I've seen (Escanaba in Da Moonlight, Dune, the Point, and Buckaroo Banzai for a few samples, although most of those had some semblance of plot), although I don't go in for weirdness as a rule, preferring to be entertained. I can't say that this movie entertained me at all. After I have written this review, I will forget all about Spirited Away, except to tell anyone who asks me about it not to waste his money or time on watching it. "masterpiece"richly done with great vision and originality. an example of intimate, personal ideas, dreams, and conciousness translated into the anime genre. beautiful artwork from color, perspective, composition... better than princess mononoke but different. the best ever from miyazake. "I got spirited away!"I can't believe I didn't get this sooner! I would see the promotions for it on television when I was eleven when it first came out, and I could kick myself for not getting before I became a teenager. A lot of my imagination has deteriorated within that time, but I'm really glad I ended up buying. Being a fan of "My Neighbor Tortoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" as a kid (which both inspired me majorly) I was wondering if Hayao Mayazaki was same one who created "Sprited Away". Doing a little research, I found out it was the same man, so I got the DVD expecting a fantasy, and got something out of my own imagination that got me back to remembering how I used to have so much fun with my own imagination back then. Chihiro (american voiced by Daveigh Chase from The Ring) isn't too thrilled moving away to another town. New school, new friends, and a new house. It's not easy for someone who's just entering into her pre-teens. But when her parents accidentally take a wrong turn, the three find themselves in a seemingly abandoned amusement park. Her parents find some food left out in a restaurant, and when you see food you know someone has to be there. But when Chihiro comes back, she finds her parents have undergone a transformation, and strange shadows going up and down the sidewalks of the once abandoned place. Yet now that darkness has fallen, Chihiro knows something about the place is different, and if she wants to save her parents and herself, the only way out of the place is going straight through it. I don't want to give away too much because if you give away something, you give it all away. Hayao Mayazaki must take these own ideas from his own childhood imagination, because his artwork, and where the plot goes is too amazing to be anywhere else. Being a wannabe author, Mayazaki's work has inspired, and I'm sure for any child who sees Spirited Away or any of his other breathtaking movies will be swept out of the world, and back into their own imagination. Sprited Away is one of the more detailed and well thought out movies of his. Some of them are very easy to figure out, and some of them take a little while, but they deliver just as they always have. This one brings in a little bit of everything, and doesn't really need all explained, but as the story goes on, things fall together, and as a fantasy, you shouldn't think logical. When something comes out of the imagination, nothing is ever logical again. The voice talents are amazing. I was surprised to find out that the highly acclaimed horror remake of a japanese thriller The Ring would have the same voice of Samara (for those of you who have seen it) in another remake. Coincidental? Daveigh Chase did good as little Chihiro, but of course the original is always better. I didn't listen to the japanese voice, but just in case I didn't like the new american voices, it's always good to switch on the subtitles, and change to the original japanese voices. That's what I really like about DVD's. Spirited Away definitely has a good many laughs, but for kids who don't understand them it may be good, but for the adults, they'll be laughing until they can't breathe with the inside jokes all throughout the movie. The DVD also has a good variety of things to choose from unlike the sad DVD for my neighbor Totoro. I hope Mayazaki comes out with more like this, though. He's so highly underrated it's not even funny. At least there's a good number of us who appreciate him. |
