MotW: Spirited Away

After this was picked, I had to watch it again with my kids.  They absolutely adored it.  Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki are masters at their craft, and it is clearly put on display here.  Spirited Away won 3 Academy Awards, and it probably deserved more. 

Our main character, Chihiro Ogino, starts the movie in the back seat of her parents car, and they are moving to a new home.  She is very upset about leaving her friends and her old neighborhood, when her father takes a wrong turn on the way.  The road is unpaved, and the forest they are driving through becomes more and more mysterious. Eventually, they have to  stop at a statue in front of a tunnel.  Intrigued, Dad gets out, and he wants to explore.  Chihiro is scared, yet her Mom coaches her into the creepy tunnel, and the story begins.

The underlying theme of this movie is about growing up.  I won't spoil much, if you haven't seen it, but Chihiro ends up at a bath house full of spirits, even though she shouldn't be there.  Her parents are captured and turned into pigs.  She has to find a way to survive, and we see her grow in a wonderful character arc.  She is scared, whiney, and weak in the beginning.  Through guidance of allegorical beings, she learns to become respectful and hard working.  She also learns to stay away from greed and gluttony, while staying determined to accomplish her overarching goals in situations that would be terrifying to a 10 year old girl. 

The hand drawn art is simply fantastic in this movie.  I hate the reliance on computer animation these days, because there is a lack of heart in most character and setting designs.  (They seem rather cookie cutter, if you ask me.)  The look of the spirit characters is fantastic, and I adore the designs of the Shinto/Buddhist spirits personified.  No Face shines quite a bit, because that spirit seems so kind, yet there is a scene in which he himself becomes a monster.  There is so much nuance to the character designs, that we could talk for hours about the likes of Boh, Haku, Yubaba, the Radish Spirit, Kamajī, the Kashira, the Susuwatari, and even the Foreman. 

The eb and flow of the movie is done quite masterfully as well.  I watched an old Japanese TV special on the DVD with subtitles, and they focused on Miyazaki quite a bit.  He spoke of the need for reflection after fantastic events that occurred in the movie.  Without reflection, nonstop action is nothing but noise.  (Modern action movies like Marvel and DC should take this man's master classes on film making.)  I loved the reflective scenes, and the train scene with our heroes 3/4s of the way through the movie put a smile on my face.  

What a great movie.  I highly recommend it.

Probably my favourite animated movie of all time.