Spirited Away

Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.
2001 by Nibariki

Reviewed by TG Browning

First, some givens. I’m an aging baby boomer, fairly set in my ways, and not a big fan of a lot of what passes for animation these days. I like The Simpsons well enough, I’ll admit, but that’s due to the generally witty writing and in spite of the animation. King of the Hill has lousy writing and animation that sucks rocks, big-time. Beavis and Buthead are simply too puerile for words, with animation that looks like a eight year old on ’ludes got to boss the operation.

The Cartoon Network has generated some good cartoons—Ren and Stimpy for example, as well as Johnny Bravo and Angry Beavers. While I’m not a big fan of Sponge-Bob Squarepants, I did enjoy Rocko’s Modern Life.

Given that, do you need three guesses to peg how I feel about anime in general?

Didn’t think so.

However. I’ve stumbled across one anime DVD that I recommend whole-heartedly, unreservedly, and with a great deal of fondness. It’s one I’ve watched a couple of times already and I’ll probably watch it several times more over the next couple of months. It’s called Spirited Away and it’s something very special indeed.

The animation is light years ahead of most anime. Truly. The story line is rich, innovative, engrossing and tight. I think it’s probably one of the best ways for a westerner to be introduced to Japanese folk tales, folk lore and religion, all while being contemporary as anything you could name from Disney (who distributes the movie, by the way).

I got suckered into watching at a friend’s house a while back. A bunch of guys I know meet on the first Saturday of each month and generally shoot the breeze, have a couple of beers and some pizza. This time out, the host was showing off his newest computer, a laptop with a CD-ROM/DVD player and left it on while the conversation flowed along on its own. I glanced at it a couple of times and was struck by the depth of the animation. There was a wonderful scene where the heroine of the piece is riding in a car and looks out the side window. It looked exactly like what one sees in real life — nearer objects blurred as they shoot past the window while object further away, proceed at a much more leisurely pace and consequently, appear much sharper.

I was next struck by a figure that was, I guess, supposed to be a carving of a spirit of some kind — and immediately noticed it looked remarkably like some of the pen and ink illustrations I’ve seen from the early part of the 20th Century — specifically, the sort that John R. Neil did for the Oz books.

A little later still, I happened to notice a big, slimy, slithering something-or-other totally unlike anything I’d ever seen, anywhere, anytime. That more or less did it. I went out and bought the DVD as quickly as I could find a copy.

The basic story is that a girl, Chihiro, and her parents are moving to a new home and town and make a wrong turn. They encounter a tumbled down building at the end of a rough, country road and the father decides to investigate — taking his wife and daughter along through the building and a long, dark tunnel.

Before you know it, the father and mother are enchanted and Chihiro, frightened now because a mysterious boy, named Haku, has warned her to get away before sundown, finds herself trapped in a different world, a world of spirits and odd looking people.

The place is a bathhouse for spirits, things like river spirits, vegetable spirits, a whole panoply of spirits that don’t figure in most European myths at all. The mysterious boy saves her from fading away entirely — being a mortal in a spirit world will do that to a person — by the time honored method of getting her to eat something from that world.

He advises Chihiro to get a job working in the bathhouse so she can’t be thrown out of the place, holding out the possibility that she might be able to free her parents and herself, if she has courage and keeps her wits about her. Not to worry, this little girl has both, along with a respectful and enduring nature that holds her in good stead, even in the face of the dangerous witch who owns and operates the bathhouse, Yubaba.

The movie isn’t short. Some people might even find it a bit over-long but I can’t agree with that opinion. A lot goes on and keeping the action moving and intelligible requires some parts have to move at a slightly slower pace. There’s a great number of funny scenes and some rather amazing, uniquely innovative characters to hold interest and I can’t believe most viewers would be happy with any sort of condensed version.

The movie has garnered a number of awards already: Best Animated Feature, Nation Board of Review; The Golden Bear Award for Best Picture, the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival; and Best Animated Film, New York Film Critics Circle . The film maker, Hayao Miyazaki, wrote the script as well as directed the movie and shows a depth of talent that is truly amazing. There are lessons to be learned from the film and viewers young or old can find something thoughtful to reflect upon once the closing credits begin.

If I had to find one adjective to describe the movie, it would be imaginative, though I suspect original could be applied equally well. All the hallmarks of truly superior imagination are there: Wit, wisdom, depth, character, and emotion, and they’re all combined smoothly into a movie will have staying power. Like the MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz, Spirited Away will be viewed, repeatedly, by delighted audiences for decades to come.

Buy the DVD. Watch it. Enjoy it. And keep it around. You’ll be glad you did.

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