Review of Spirited Away

Introduction

Where to start? I`m pretty new to anime, and I wasn`t sure whether I`d like it. I was raised on Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and the ever staid Disney feature animations. I`ve despaired over the lack of quality in hand-drawn animation from Hollywood and rejoiced in the renaissance of computer animation at the hands of geniuses like John Lasseter.

I suspect what put me off anime was those terrible tv cartoons of the 1980s, produced by Japanese animators and then assaulted by editors and hack-animators in Hollywood to make shows like "Battle of the Planets", or "Transformers".

Somehow, I just let the whole thing pass me by until I heard about Miyazaki`s "Spirited Away". I read a couple of interviews where John Lasseter raved about the sheer visual style of Miyazaki-san`s work; and then it won the Best Animated Picture Osc*r. I said to myself I had to keep an eye out for the DVD, but to my dismay there wasn`t one.

Well, here it is now.

Hayao Miyazaki`s visually eye-popping animation takes the whole concept of animation by the throat and gives it a damn good shake. It`s about as far removed from the Disney-style of animation as you can possibly get, and takes traditional hand-drawn animation to giddy heights of invention that hasn`t been seen since the 1920s (when Walt stamped out genuine surrealism in cartoons in favour of visual puns).

It`s the story of ten-year-old Chihiro, a self-centred little madam who has to summon up all of her courage to save herself and her parents from a mysterious world they find themselves in when Dad takes a wrong turn on the road. Her parents, showing the kind of disregard for caution normally attributed to youngsters, help themselves to a feast from an unattended shop and are transfigured into pigs. Alone in what proves to be a spirit world, she finds herself working for sorceress Yubaba in her spirit bathhouse.

Video

Presented in its original (and unusual) aspect ratio of 2:1, the film is quite honestly a work of art. The simple-looking lines of the Miyazaki style belie the sheer artistry of the animators of Studio Ghibli. Colours are strong and vibrant, lines and contrast are sharp without being over enhanced.

Audio

The movie comes with Dolby Digital soundtracks in plain vanilla stereo and 5.1 surround. There is also an option to watch the movie with its original Japanese dialogue and subtitles.

Features

On the feature disc, throughout the movie you can switch to a storyboard comparison using your remote`s "angle" button. The movie is fully subtitled in English. There is also an optional introduction to the movie by Pixar`s John Lasseter, who was the film`s international-version executive producer.

On the features disc there is a six-minute featurette on dubbing the movie into English. There is also a forty-minute Nippon TV special about the making of the movie. The check disc I received was the first version, revised since submission to the BBFC to substitute some salty language in the subtitling. There are also trailers and tv spots.

Conclusion

A quite magnificent achievement, showing more originality in one place than a dozen Hollywood animations. If like me you`re new to anime, this is the best introduction to the genre and you`ll soon be looking for other titles by the master.