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SPIRITED
AWAY
AKA:
Sen
To Chihiro No Kamikakushi
Year:
2001 Reviewer: Rob
Daniel
Director
Hayao Miyazaki hates the label "the Japanese Walt
Disney". Disney
movies are typically light and, since killing off Bambi's mum
sixty-three years ago, undemanding.
Miyazaki's
animation company, Studio Ghibli, produces animated features
that eschew Disney cute in favour of realistic, whimsical
stories of childhood ('Whispers of the Heart') or bloody,
cautionary ecological fables ('Princess
Mononoke'). Studio
Ghibli's films embrace the excitement and dread of the best
fairy tales, along with the mature themes that make them so
timelessly enticing.
'Spirited
Away' continues Studio Ghibli's triumphant, echoing
'Cinderella' and 'Alice in Wonderland' yet remaining a true
original. From
the dazzlingly detailed animation design to the unusual,
compelling story, this is a sumptuous treat for all ages.
Chihiro
(Hiragi), a sullen ten-year old, is abruptly plunged into the
fantastical parallel world of The Land of Spirits when her
parents stumble into a deserted, beautiful looking town.
Ignorantly mistaking it for a theme park, Chihiro's
parents eat a banquet intended for gods and are transformed
into pigs, to be fattened for another feast.
To
rescue her parents Chihiro requires the help of Haku (Irino),
a mysterious young boy who becomes a dragon to do the
nefarious bidding of Yubaba (Natsuki), an old crone managing a
bathhouse for Gods. But,
humans are unwelcome in this world of wonder and peril, so
Chihiro must gain employment at the bathhouse to prove her
worth, in the process "selling" her name to Yubaba
and becoming "Sen", the Japanese number for 1000 (is
she the thousandth person to have been trapped in the land?).
Like
most Miyazaki movies, 'Spirited Away' is a rite of passage
movie, with children forced to mature and accept
responsibility in an alien adult world.
Continuing Miyazaki's interest in the simple details of
working, Chihiro learns the ropes, preparing the laundry at
the bathhouse and scrubbing the grimiest bathtubs; discovering
her worth through her labours.
So
assured is Miyazaki's fantasyland, this mundanity rests neatly
alongside the fanciful flights of imagination that illuminate
the screen, including the eco-friendly sequence when Chihiro
removes bicycles and detritus from a sickened, putrescent
river god, Okutaresama, restoring him to his original
resplendent self.
Miyazaki
also has the confidence to climax quietly with Chihiro taking
a magical train journey to right a wrong Haku made when under
the control of Yubaba, aided by the timid "No-face",
whom she rescues from the murkier side of his character
brought out in the fevered atmosphere of the bathhouse (and
which had some critics spying disguised messages of
prostitution). Haku's
true self (similarly robbed when he entered the service of
Yubaba) is a surprise, although Miyazaki slyly slips in a clue
midway through the film.
Criticisms
of 'Spirited Away' claim the two-hour running time drags and
the story is too opaque for younger viewers.
Yet, into these two hours Miyazaki crams a treasure
trove of incident and detail, while the story simply requires
attention, although Miyazaki films are admittedly more
rewarding on subsequent viewings.
The
animation is uniformly superlative, from the character
designs, particularly the gallery of gods and grotesques who
populate the bathhouse, to the background details, notably the
carpets and curtains, which are easy to miss but add
immeasurably to the experience.
The movie was hand-drawn and digitally enhanced to give
it a glorious super-realistic look; check out the sequence
when Haku and Chihiro run through a flower garden to marvel at
the fruit of this process.
Humour,
heart and high-level animation all combine to make 'Spirited
Away' an overwhelmingly rewarding and endlessly magical
experience.
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