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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 |
 "Apparently I'm not the only one who is confused. "After hearing a lot of hype about this from the media and friends alike, another friend and I drove the hour and a half trip to see this movie in a packed theater. I knew only the very basic plot and the beginning started innocently enough. About twenty minutes in I started going "Huh?" As I've been studying Japanese for about three years, I am no stranger to their culture. There were several references I did get, though the rest could have been lost in translation with the pathetic dub. I haven't wanted to find a non-Disney subtitled version and see if it's actually as good as some people think. The story jumped erratically, and before you could understand the names of most of the supporting cast you were in a completely different scene. If they were reintroduced (and a lot weren't) you were left thinking, "Oh, right, that's that girl...What's her name again?" It was an unmemorable experience and I found myself wishing for a watch to check the time. The rest of the audience seemed as glazed over as I did. I don't remember any particular parts where I or anyone eles laughed out loud and the only time that I think made me smile was that I could translate some of their names. (Even with the horrible accents. Lynn is certainly not the way you pronounce it!) I knew the money I paid for my classes was actually paying off. If you enjoyed this, then great. More power to you. But if you want something enjoyable to watch, I urge you to find other Ghibli/Miyazaki films. For kids, Kiki's Delivery Service or The Cat Returns is fun, and if you do want deeper films you need turn no further than Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke or Grave of Fireflies.  "Wonderful movie, would watch again and again!"Spirited Away is a movie based on my most favorite Director of all time, Hayao Miyazaki. I was at Blockbuster ( a movie rental store for those who might not know ) and I seen this movie. The name kind of got me to wanna go see what it was about... because of it, I ended up renting it for that time. I was glued to the TV screen until the movie was over! Spirited Away is truly a family movie, a movie that everyone will enjoy! Its filled with magical things, and beauitful artwork as you will find with any Miyazaki movie from what I've seen. If you really want a wonderful movie, pretty much appropriate for the whole family, rent or buy this movie! It is well worth it!!! "A DVD worthy of the movie.""Spirited Away" is nothing short of a modern classic in a time when new true classics are hard to come by. It's very inspiring and ambitious, while being beautiful and touching at the same time. The movie centers around a little girl who has been forced to work in a bathhouse that serves spirits in order to save her parents from their awful fate that has been brought upon them. However, she makes plenty of new friends along the way, and these supporting characters are just as intriguing as the main character herself. Add upon this the beautiful score and theme song and you have a movie destined to last. The story takes many twists and turns, but it shouldn't be too hard to follow for most people. As for the special features on the DVD, they really give a fantastic insight into how much labor it required to produce this movie. The "Making Of" documentary is very satisfying and leaves very few aspects about the making of the movie untouched. The "Behind the Microphone" extra introduces you to the voice actors that took part in the English-translated version of the film, and "The Art of Spirited Away" displays the effort that was put forth in producing this movie for an American audience. There's also a feature where you can take a peak at the storyboards for the first scene of the film while the audio track plays underneath. The only feature that's not particularly worthwhile are the Japanese trailers. Admittingly, some of these are very very good. However, some are just too similar to each other and it becomes very tedious to watch these for 30 minutes straight. In any case, the special features are very informative and accomplish their task in giving insight to the making of the film. This movie is not just for kids, but I'd recommend this to families who might be looking for a new movie that they could watch together. "I'm at a loss for words..."Outside of Family Guy and South Park, I'm not exactly hot on animation. My favourite films are usually adult in content, be it the philosophical ramblings of Fight Club, the surreal film noir of Mulholland Drive or the intense yet touching Irreversible. So naturally I was sceptical when my friend asked if I wanted to watch Spirited Away, a Japanese Anime that I assumed was for kids. It looked like something to watch with your girlfriend or something. How wrong I was, because Spirited Away isn't just the best animated film I've ever seen, it has quikcly risen to being one of my favourite feature films ever. Gorgeous animation, drenched with mood swings (from happy to sad to angry to confused) and filled with subtle details, Spirited Away captures the beauty of love, the frustration of being misunderstood, how frightening it is to be thrown into a new situation, the greed of humankind as well as showing how a little human kindness goes a long, long way. Spirited Away follows Shihiro (aka Sen) as her family unwittingly wander into a spirit world and treat it with utmost disrespect. Her parents are held captive by the head honcho Yubabba while Sen must learn the ways of the spirit world in order to win them back and return the real world. I won't give anything awy, but she starts of a frightened and pathetic little girl and finishes a strong, intuitive young woman. This isn't a kids films with enough charm to win over the rest of us, its a genuinely wondorful piece of work with messages that apply to everyone. Leave reality at the door and get lost in this fascinating world of the spirits. "Piece of Art"spirited away is like a dream. i espescially like the pure emotion put into this film. Director Hayao Miyazaki poured his heart and soul into making this movie a special experience for its viewers. i like the way he connected the real world with the imaginary by plucking real live personalities, studying their emotions and then inserting them into this amazing piece of work as hand drawn charachters. that is another thing i like about this film, it wasnt made by some barely pubescent teen with a computer, it was made by teamwork of a large staff working, eating and socialising within gimli studio. what suprises me is that a film of this magnitude started with Miyazaki meeting a bored unsociable 10 year old daughter of his friend. Miyazaki observed the girl and concluded that he must makke a movie that is interesting to 10 year olds. he wanted to show them they werent just short teens forgotten near the floor, he wanted to excite them into taking a more active role in their lives. THANK YOU MIYAZAKI FOR THIS WONDERFULL FILM, AND THANK YOU AMAZON FOR GIVING ME A CHANCE TO WATCH IT!!! |
