OK last October I saw a review on Ebert & Robert on the latest Hayo Myazaki movie called Spirited Away. Well I didn’t go out to see it for 2 reasons, first reason some idiot at Disney thought to only give it a release in something like 26 theaters in USA and Canada. Which brings me to the 2nd reason I live in the sticks and are movie theater closed down sometime ago which means it wasn’t going to be shown in anywhere where I live. Needless to say when I heard it was coming out on DVD I pre ordered it ASAP. Well out of all of the Myazaki movies released last April Spirited Away is the best. The movie is great and it has more extras on it then Kiki's Delivery Service, and Castle in the Sky.

Movie.
Ok first off Princess Mononoke wasn’t going to Myazaki's last movie, he never said it was. He said it was going to be the last movie he made in the same fashion. You see Myazaki does things in his movie that Disney would give out to an entire staffs in there studio. He did the writing, the story boarding, and the directing by himself on Mononoke. All he did was get some more help because he's starting to get old, he never said he was going to quit. Which kind of makes me wonder why Disney put his name in big red letters above the title, when he had the most help in this movie then any of the others. Oh well this is still the best Myazaki movie that was ever made, yes it even surpasses even the great Kiki's Delivery Service.

At the beginning of the movie where introduced to the 10 year old Chirio an apathetic 10 year old Japanese girl who is moving to a new town and isn’t to thrilled about it. When her father takes a wrong turn they find what looks like an abandon amusement park. Her parents find what looks like a food court and start gorging on food while Chiro looks around. She bumps into a strange boy who tells her to get out of the park while she still can. She returns to get her parents only to find they have been turn into pigs. It seems that there not in an amusement park but in another dimension filled with Japanse gods. Since Chiro isn’t to fond of pig pens she is forced in to signing a work contract with the greedy ruler of the bath house the witch Yubaba. But signing the work contract means she looses her name and is given a new name Sen, she also looses any chances she has to getting back to the human world.

Along the way Sen meets a variety of characters there is her coworker Lin, the 8 legged boiler man Kamagi, and Zeniba the twin sister of Yubaba and her polar opposite has well. The most mysterious person she meets though is Haku the young boy who warn her at the beginning. He helps her through many binds including getting her name back. But he also has a cold hearted side and is Yubaba's henchmen. He also seems to know her even though he doesn’t remember any of his past. Figuring out Haku is only one of the thing's Sen needs to do if she ever hopes to return home.

This movie is so much better then Mononoke in so many ways. It doesn’t try to raise any morality issues that Mononoke, and unlike Mononoke it has heroes and good guys. Of course that isn’t to say that Yubaba the witch is a bad guy (or hag) and that she is going to be burn at the stake by the end of the movie. She doesn’t do any of the bad things to Chirio because she has some personal grudge, nor does she does it because she is mean spirited. All the things she does is mainly business, Chiro and her parents screwed things up around the bath house so she turn the parents into pigs because of it, she deems it has doing Chiro a favor by signing her on and not during her into a pig.

Like Princess Mononoke there are environmental messages that Myazaki quietly raises (quietly has in he doesn’t cram them down are throat, or give the solution of the only way to fix things is for humans to go back to being cave men either). Like what happens if a river gets polluted does it god get sick, and what happens to the god that protects something in nature if that thing gets destroyed.

Has for the PG rating it's well justify. It doesn’t have the literal disarmings and beheadings that Mononoke had. But it does have a few gross out scenes including a dragon that barfs up blood (it's done with more tact then you might think), and then a creature that is known has noh face that pukes out of both ends (it’s done with less tact then you might think.).

Animation.
While Ghibli animation isn’t up to par with Disney, even movies that are nothing but raw suckage like return to neverland have better animation. But then Ghibli is a small studio while Disney is a giant cooperation. But when it comes to imagination and to detail Ghibli does a great job. I haven't seen this much imagination and creativity into creating weird creatures since Monsters Inc. The unusual creatures include different types of dragons, small chicken type monsters, jumbo sized radish spirits, and a mysterious monster who wears a noh mask. Of course has mention in the title the suit sprites from My Neighbor Totoro make an appearance. Theve grown arms and leg’s and work for the boiler man Komagi. This makes up for things like the choppy frame rate, so while the characters movements may be choppy there’s still plenty to look at.

Voices.
The English voice cast is a little bit more low key then that of Princess Mononoke no big movie stars or anything, but they do a great job. Devigh Chase (Lilo and Stitch) does a great job doing the voice of Chirio. The only thing that got on my nerves was when Chirio had to yell, her voice over fell flat on it’s face then, luckily it only happens a few times through out the movie. But it could be worse most 10 year old anime girls always sound like there 30 in the dubs. The other voices are great coming from other Disney and Pixar vocals incudling David Ocgten Stires (Cogsworth of Beauty and the Beast), and Jon Ratcliff (Yeti in Monsters Inc) doing voices has well. The only complaint is with the voice of Haku, it isn’t that the guy playing him doesn’t to a good job, it’s just that he sounds to old. He is after all 25 years old (he played in the sitcom step by step has one of JT’s friends) so I wish they found somebody who was the same age has the character to do the part. He also sounds to nice so when the nature of Haku’s character comes into question you never really do doubt that he may be a bad guy.

Subb vs Dubb.
I am not a big fan of subbs, mainly because in less the movie’s been changed a lot, or the English voice talents is absolutely terrible I like mine in English. I liked to see what’s going on the screen rather then read words of dialogue, if I wanted to read the dialogue I would go get the book. Still it’s usually worth going through the subb just once to see what’s been changed and that’s no different in Spirited Away. Disney did the dubb has a co-venture with Pixar and the dubb was pretty good. Like most dubbs there have been lines changed but unlike Kiki or Castle in the Sky none of them have been for chap jokes. Most of them are added to explain something that might go after American heads like what a gold seal is and the Japanese cooty shot (of course you can’t blame them for adding those anyway’s in one of the features on the disc Myazaki has to explain to his Japanese staff and crew what those are to). Any way’s both the dubb and the subb are on the disc and I recommend watching both at least once, but I would still go with the dubb.

Marketing.
So what are my thoughts on marketing of this film. Well I have several words for Disney but none of them would be allowed here on Epinions they did a terrible job. Spirited Away was number 1 in the Jappanse box office in 2001, toppling that of Titantic. On the disc there is a half hour of nothing but advertisements and trailers for this movie so obviously it was a big thing over there. I think Disney set out to make sure this movie tanked in America by only releasing it in 26 theaters in large city’s. Which makes me go what the heck was going on since I heard Disney flipped some of the bill for the “original” production of this movie, wouldn’t they want to get the maximum income return on there doller. Any way’s in late March when this won the Oscar Disney finally gave it a wide release 2 weeks before the video came out, even with that fact I heard that the wide re-release of it was more then double that of the original release, shows Disney made a stupid mistake.

DVD.
The DVD on this one is fantastic the video is a little dark and grainy sometimes but overall the video is pretty good. But the extras in this one are great for an Anime DVD this ones busting with extras. You have the usual Jon Lasseter opening that the other 2 DVD’s have. Has well has the trailers (like I said over half an hour of them), you have a behind the microphone featurette, has well has another featurette that contains more of a look of the work involved in dubbing the film and interviews with Myazaki. There is also a hidden easter egg on disc 1 with an interview of Jon Lasseter and Hayo Myazaki. There are only 12 minutes of story boards in this one but your allowed to use the angle button to go back and forth between the story boards and the movie. Has well has a Jappanse language track.

The greatest feature though is a Nippon TV special that goes behind the scenes of Ghibli on the making of the film. It is of course subtitle but it goes through everything that one on in Ghibli including being behind schedule and having to hire more workers, to directing the voice acting, to Myazaki’s cooking. It’s a great one to watch.

Final recommendation.
I highly recommend this movie has either a buy or a rental if you haven’t seen it yet.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8