Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Intro

Miyazaki has gathered a well deserved reputation within the anime community as being one of the most skilled and respected directors ever and while over in Japan, he is a master of what he does‚ he'll never get the recognition he deserves over here as long as Disney keeps releasing his movies.

The Story

Chichiro is a young girl of 10 who is moving to a new home with her family. She's apathetic and whiney but she's going along with it despite her best efforts to complain.

Along the way though it seems that fate has it's own plan for her to grow up when her and her parent's take an unscheduled detour and end up in what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Unfortunately, this is no amusement park as after it turns dark, magic turns Chichiro's parents into pigs and she is left alone with few friends in a magical hot spring of mythic proportions trying to figure out a way to save both herself and her parents before it becomes too late.


The Good And The Bad

This was a wonderful release and while Disney could've done better with certain aspects, for the most part there really isn't much to complain about with this release. I enjoyed my time with this film but the story seemed rather weak to me and the characters were just too under developed for me to really get into it as much as I thought that I would.

For a film that was hailed as one of the best films of 2002, I have to say that I am fairly unimpressed with what I saw. My time was far from wasted but I also think that I could've been watching much better anime.


Music

The music in this movie was done with a full orchestra and it really fit in with the movie. Within a few minutes of it starting, it seemed to flow with every movement and line. Brilliant work done here.

Dub vs. Sub

Both the dub and sub tracks were good here but I would definitely have to go with the sub track here simply because since it is Disney, they edited things out in the dub that I thought were completely unnecessary such as changing the ‘stink god’ into the ‘river spirit’ . If you really want to get the full effect of this film, take a look at it in it's subtitled format.


Extras

One thing that I will give Disney credit for, they never skimp on the extras of their DVD releases and this one is no exception. Two discs are in this release with tons of extras.

Introduction by John Lasseter , who is the executive producer of the American release and also works for Pixar. Interestingly enough, I've seen his intro to ‘Castle In The Sky’ and it seemed oddly familiar to this one. Almost as though it were a ‘fill in the blank’ type speech.
Next up would be a special feature about the voice actors and their performances in this movie called ‘Behind the Microphone’ followed by some artwork features: Making of Spirited Away - Nippon TV Special and Art of Spirited Away.

The final two extras on this volume would be the Select Storyboard to Scene Comparison and finally the Original Japanese Trailers

Overall

Overall I wasn't nearly as impressed with this film as I thought that I would be. I didn't go with very high expectations (like I said, I've seen what Disney does to anime before) and even those weren't met very well.
While the movie does have a few good and touching parts (I'm willing to admit to getting misty eyed at a few parts), overall it's not something that I would watch again or tell anyone else that they had to see it. It's barely worth a recommendation and sadly only worth 3 stars from its 69% grade.

Related Reviews

Castle In The Sky
Spirited Away
Kiki's Delivery Service
Grave Of The Fireflies
The Cat Returns
Nausicaa Of The Valley of The Wind


©L.B. Bryant 2004


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8