Spirited Away [SUB] (2001) Review

 Spirited Away [SUB] (2001) 8.5/10

Hello and welcome to another movie review. Today, I’ll be tackling one of the most critically acclaimed movies ever made. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away was released on July 20, 2001, with Miyazaki’s animation studio Studio Ghibli producing the film. Upon its release, Spirited Away was critically acclaimed by both general audiences and critics, and was a massive box office hit. The film was even awarded Best Animated Film at the Oscars.

At this point in time, I have seen this movie a couple of times now, and although I enjoy it, I still fail to see why this was so popular. In Japan, it makes sense seeing as this has heavy Japanese folklore mixed into its story. But abroad? The movie has phenomenal animation, but I just don’t see how this got so popular. Anyway, let’s begin.

This is the story of Chihiro, a 10 year old girl who is moving to a new home with her mother and father. On the way to the new place, the family takes a detour and explores an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro wants nothing to do with this, but the parents drag her with them anyway. As they’re exploring, they unintentionally get spirited away to the Spirit World. The parents have been turned into pigs and Chihiro is now all alone in an unfamiliar place. A friendly face by the name of Haku helps her survive her current predicament, telling her to get a job at the spirit bathhouse. In order to save her parents and get back home, Chihiro will embark on a strange journey full of spirits, hardworking sweat, and an evil witch who values money over everything else.

As someone who recently watched Princess Mononoke, I am lowkey disappointed with Spirited Away. I know both movies are vastly different, but it’s the quality of the story that I’m drawing this comparison from (and the fact they are both from the same studio and released not even 5 years apart). The best parts about Spirited Away is its fantastical world, how it’s filled up, and Chihiro herself. Yubaba, Haku, Lin, and Zeniba are fine characters, but I honestly didn’t care for them all that much. Chichiro on the other hand is a phenomenal main character. This is an excellent coming-of-age story for her, growing up from a bratty child to a hardworking housekeeper with her priorities straight. Even though she was frightened, she buckled up and did what she needed to get the job done, which is highly commendable. I also really enjoyed the Spirit World and all the crazy guests that walked across that bridge. The movie really made the bathhouse feel lively and full of chaotic energy. But yeah, I honestly didn’t care for the story of Chihiro wanting to save her parents, but I did enjoy her development to accomplish this goal.

I will say though, her parents are fucking terrible. “Yeah let’s take a detour on moving day to enjoy some sightseeing while the movers have all of our stuff. I clearly see our young child not enjoying the area, but let’s do this anyway. Oh there’s food? Let’s indulge ourselves with no fucking care in the world.” I don’t care if the dad is loaded or not, that was incredibly rude and selfish to start eating all of that food AND completely ignore your daughter. These parents are trash lmao.

As I said earlier, Spirited Away has phenomenal animation. The animation is all buttery smooth with some of the most dynamic shots I’ve seen from an animated movie. I love all of the character designs, and just the fantastical vibe from everything really sells this movie. The way the colors pop helped engross me into this world too. Ghibli really knocked it out of the park. Same thing with the music too. Joe Hisaishi returned to do this movie’s score and it was amazing as well.

I watched this in the Japanese dub and it was really solid. Best performance goes to Rumi Hiiragi, who played Chihiro. She really captured a frightened 10 year old girl stuck in a strange world, and on top of that, captured her personality perfectly. Also shout out to Miyu Irino (Haku), Mari Natsuki (Yubaba and Zeniba), Yumi Tamai (Lin), Bunta Sugawara (Kamaji), and Akio Nakamura (No Face).

Spirited Away is still a great movie that I highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it. Or if you have seen it before, it’s a nice film to revisit from time to time. Personally, I just don’t see the mass appeal to it as there are better Ghibli movies out there, but still a great movie regardless. Until my next review, stay frosty.

Thanks for reading.

This is Zorgak, signing off.