Spirited Away (2001)

Rating: 9/10

"There must be some mistake! None of these pigs are my parents!"

It's not many times that I will sit down to watch anime feature films, but with this one I made the exception. The film is 'Spirited Away' and for 2hrs, we are being asked by the Studio Ghibli to sit back and get carried away in a mesmerizing journey. First time I watched this was back in 2003. And it literally took my breath away.

This film tells the story of Chihiro. "After she's forced to move to the suburbs with her family, Chihiro, a 10-year old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures." (www.imdb.com)

This was the first film I've ever watched by world acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki, and surely wouldn't be the last one as well. To express my overwhelming desire to want to live in the world that Miyazaki so brilliantly created would be an understatement.

This animated feature film holds high its sceptre as on of the best animated films of all time, due to its unlimited length of imagination, its overwhelming spirit to show go beyond the boundaries and with a plot that can simply attracted even the more demanding anime-viewers.

The freshness of the story is not only addressed to young audiences, as this film also talks about moral messages that rule our 'adult' society today. The issues at hand begin from the theme of greed and gluttony up to the themes of envy and how to surpass everything negative that life may through in your way, and to try to be as authentic and as honest as when you first start a journey as such as Chihiro's.

An overwhelming animated experience. This is why I recommend this film. It will fill you up, bedazzle you and then spit you up like a hurricane with a sweetness you will not be expecting.

For those who will indulge to roam around in Chihiro's world for the two-hour length of the feature, I hope you let also your imagination run wild. That's all you need to have when you sit to watch this.


Spirited Away (2001)