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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 |
 "A Masterpiece of Animation, with a dubious dub""Spirited Away" is the film that first turned me on to the work of Hayao Miyazaki. The first time I saw it was as a weekly arthouse feature at my local cinema, and I was blown away by the beautiful storyline, appealing characters, and sweeping animation and musical score. At the time, I thought that Pixar had done a fantastic job with the dubbing. A couple of years afterwards, I bought the DVD and watched the original Japanese version, and have never felt the same about the English dub. While the vocal performances are quite good, the writing manages to muddle and stink up the original dialogue. Sometimes the changes are subtle: "god" in the original becomes "spirit" in the dub (I admit to knowing no Japanese; perhaps the Japanese word is the same for both?). Other times, it's more blatant. Disney seems to have felt the need to dumb this film down ("Americanize" it, if you will) to the point where they added explanatory dialogue to fill in what in the original were great moments of silence. Obviously I can't tell you what they are without disclosing spoilers, but some of the mysteries of the film are ruined by this "over-dubbing," and more than one transition is destroyed by it. Fortunately for us, we have DVD technology; and this particular release is excellent, in that it gives us the dubbed version in addition to the original Japanese with its own set of more literal subtitles. These subtitles sometimes go too quickly, but this film is so beautiful that it bears repeated viewings anyway. Highly recommended DVD release. "WHAT A BOX OFFICE CHAMPION-MOVE OVER AKIRA"THIS MOVIE BROUGHT IN $234 MILLION AND WON THE GOLDEN BEAR PRIZE IN BERLIN GERMENY. IT GOT AN OSCAR NOMINATION. I LOVE THAT THE PEOPLE LOOK MORE LIKE ASIANS INSTEAD OF WHITE PEOPLE. THIS GIVE PIXTAR A RUN FOR IT'S MONEY SPIRITED AWAY DOESN'T NEED TO GO 3D IT'S GREAT 2D ANIMATION BEATS SHREK AND FINDING NEMO. I WISH IN THE U.S. THIS MOVIE GOT MORE COMERCIAL ADVERTISED THAT IT WAS COMING TO THEATHERS SO MORE PEOPLE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT. "Wonderful"I saw this movie for the first time this weekend, and I was blown away. This is a wonderful story - it has everything I love about Wizard of Oz and Labyrinth, the crazy creatures in the alternate magical world, the coming-of-age of the protagonist, a great emotional punch - with superb animation and direction. I highly recommend this movie. It's beautiful. "A gorgeous film that truly spirits away"If Bilbo had a human cousin, it would be Chihiro, a sullen girl who, a la Bastian in THE NEVERENDING STORY, falls into a dangerous world that reminds one of Jim Henson's "Labyrinth." Like Sarah, Chihiro, initially sullen and refusing to accept change (a move to a new city), must rescue loved ones, in this case her parents, from a mysterious all-powerful magician and shape-shifter, the demon Yubaba (who would get along famously with Aku from "Samurai Jack.") Like Jareth in "Labyrinth," Yubaba takes the form of a bird and seems obsessed with babies, in this case her own. Chihiro must find a way to disenchant her parents after they eat the sacred offerings for the spirits and turn into pigs a la THE ODYSSEY. While Chihiro's parents blithely muck about in the pigpen unaware that they may be turned into bacon, Chihiro gets work at the bathhouse with a boy named Haku and a girl named Lin, who makes Chihiro seem like Little Miss Sunshine. Clearly, Yubaba's never heard of child labor laws. She doesn't mind torturing frog- and slug-people who work at her "high-class" bathhouse for spirits and dmeons. But Yubaba's own baby...ah, that's a different story. But Yubaba's baby seems to like Chihiro... Chihiro doesn't know who to trust--the boiler-man Kamaji? Lin? Haku, who Lin says is "Yubaba's henchman"? Chihiro is forced to confront a world outside her own small existence, and in doing so releases the true beauty of her spirit, particularly when she helps the wounded Haku in dragon form. "What's going on here?" Lin asks. Kamaji replies, "Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love." But even Lin begins to come around, scolding a mysterious spirit called No-Face: "You lay one finger on that girl, you're in big trouble!" The visuals of the bathhouse transport the audience to a truly wondrous world. Get "Spirited Away." "Enchanting"The most striking thing for me about the film is its wonderful animation. The settings, movements and expressions have a rare level of beauty, detail, realism and subtlety. The story itself is quite enchanting, seen through the eyes of a child. It represents the power of courage, kindness, love and respectfulness. I didn't get the part about the dragons. I don't know what they represent to the Chinese and Japanese but never mind. It's a great story. |
