From the unfathomable depths of master animator Hayoa Miyazaki's imagination comes this modern masterpiece about coming of age and summoning the courage you never knew you had. Akin to Alice in Wonderland, Spirited Away places our young heroine, Chihiro, in a bizarre fantasy world – a bathhouse run by and frequented by ancient Japanese spirits – with strong thematic ties to her real world. Already burdened by the anxieties of moving to a new town and school, Chihiro encounters challenge after challenge after challenge in this dreamlike universe, as well as an array of incredible characters, all of them highly allegorical in relation to Chihiro's inner quest. She must first overcome the tests and trials of this world before she is ready to face the same ones in real life. This subtle but very mature character arc makes Spirited Away as strong an adult character study as it is a children's fairytale; prestigious but not pretentious.
Auteur that he is, Miyazaki includes several of his most frequently visited themes and motifs, including love & friendship, greed & gluttony, and man's exploitation of the environment. His visual approach is also quite distinct. Having hand drawn many of the pictures himself, it is clear from watching Spirited Away that it is the work of a brilliant and devoted artist operating at a level of genius. Few films (let alone animated features) have ever looked as vivid, inventive, and flat-out beautiful as this one, which boasts arguably the richest production design of the decade.
