Spirited Away

 Reviewed by Rich Drees

     Animator Hayao Miyazaki has been unfairly described by some film critics as the “Walt Disney of Japan,” based mostly on the fact that he is that country’s top director of family oriented animated films. But where Disney would look to European folklore for the plots of his films, Miyazaki takes elements of Japanese folklore and uses them as building blocks for much more complex works.

     His latest film Spirited Away is perfect example.

     Chihiro is an unhappy 10 year old girl. Her parents have uprooted her from everything she knows- friends, neighborhood and school to move to a new town. While on the way to their new home, her father takes a wrong turn and they soon find themselves in an abandoned amusement park.

     Although it draws heavily from Japanese mythological traditions, Spirited Away is much more accessible to Western audiences than his last film Princess Mononoke. This is in part due to the fact that Chihiro  serves as the audience’s surrogate as she explores the strange, new world she finds herself where no such character existed in Mononoke. Chihiro is a Dorothy in a very Eastern Oz and as she under goes her journey, she discovers a similar inner strength that allows her to rescue her parents and find a way home.

     Unlike Wizard of Oz, there is no clear villains in Spirited Away, no Wicked Witches for Chihiro to splash water on. The witch Yubaba runs the bath house according to a strict, but fair, set of rules- in exchange for working for Yubaba, she will see that you are clothed, fed and housed. It’s an arrangement that seems to be a strange amalgam of feudalism and capitalism. Yubaba is more of a protagonist whom Chihiro butts heads with while trying to get home. 

     Spirited Away is a masterpiece of animation and an incredible piece of storytelling. Although some elements may be a little intense for the kindergarten and under set, this is a film that parents can definitely watch with their children and come away from feeling more than just having been entertained for two hours. It is also a film that children will be able to revisit several times, finding new things in the narrative as they grow older.