Spirited Away [videorecording]

2001. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film and Mitsubishi present a Tokuma Shoten, Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu ; producer, Toshio Suzuki ; written & directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Burbank, CA.

Plot Summary: On their move to a new home, Chihiro’s family takes a wrong turn and find themselves at what seems to be an abandoned theme park. Leaving their car, they walk through a short tunnel where they find buildings—empty except what seems to be an abandoned restaurant full of food. Mom and Dad hurry to start eating, but Chihiro refrains and wanders off. She meets a boy, Haku, who warns her to leave with her parents as soon as possible. She finds that her way is blocked by a wide river, and that her parents have been turned to pigs. As the sun sets spirits appear. Haku guides her to a large building, a bathhouse for the spirits, and tells her that she must find a job and that later he will try to help her rescue her parents.

This is the start of a magical adventure full of the spirits and gods of Japanese mythology. Chihiro, now called Sen, helps in the bathhouse of spirits and finds that the boy Haku is really a dragon who has been enslaved by the evil Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse. What follows is a somewhat convoluted plot, full of magical creatures.

Critical evaluation: Spirited Away is a visually stunning film. In the world of the bathhouse, it seems as if more beauty and magic awaits around every corner. Chihiro is a compelling and real character as are the other characters in the film. Spirited Away has won many accolades including an Oscar for best animated film and an Academy award. This film is not to be missed.

About the author: Hiyao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors and is highly renowned for his animated films. Miyazaki was born in 1941 and grew up in a neighborhood of Tokyo where his father was president of an airplane company. He graduated from Gakushuin University, with degrees in political science and economics, but was already interested in anime. Shortly after graduation he got a job as an artist in an animation company, where he worked on many different projects. His films include Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neibor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Miyzaki is also a co-founder of Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. Common themes in his field are ecology and man’s impact on nature, a fascination with flight (Princess Mononoki is one film where this is not evident), pacifism, and morally ambiguous characters, especially villains.

Miyazaki’s film are almost entirely hand drawn and his art is primarily done in watercolors. During his earlier films he would personally review each and every frame, often redrawing them (he had to give this up as he got older). According to Wikipedia, Miyazaki states that the Western authors that influenced him the most are Ursula Le Guin (especially The Wizard of Earthsea), Lewis Carroll and Diana Wynne Jones. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki)

Jones. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki)

Genre: Fantasy

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Interest Age: Children of all ages

Challenge Issues: N/A

Why included: This is a must-see film