Stardate 20030824.1838

(Captain's log): A while back I wrote about some anime I'd viewed, and wrote some mini-reviews. I placed them more or less in order from bad to good, and I wrote this about Princess Mononoke:

I've saved the best for last. This is a truly superb film. Forget everything you think you know about Japanese animation. Forget that it's even animation at all. Just watch it. Let it happen to you. Accept it for what it is; don't presume anything at all.

This is one of the best movies produced in recent years, animated or not. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen.

The animator for that film was Miyazaki Hayao, one of the most respected animators working today. In response to my enthusiasm, many people wrote to say that any Miyazaki film was superb, but that his next film, Spirited Away, was even better than Princess Mononoke.

I was a bit skeptical: how could anything be better? But now I've watched it, and they were right. Spirited Away is even better. And I'm suffering deeply.

I had read reviews of the film a long time ago which gave away plot elements, but I had forgotten them. So when I watched the film I had no idea at all what it was going to be about or where it was going to go. And now I want my readers to watch the film with the same advantages, because I think I enjoyed it even more because of that than I would have if I'd had some kind of idea of what kinds of things were coming. After I saw the film, I sought out online reviews by some of my more favorite reviewers, and though they didn't reveal what are classically known as "spoilers", they did reveal things which I think would have reduced my enjoyment had I known them.

So I'm suffering; I want to talk about the things that happen in film, but I can't. All I can really say is that this is superb. It's a keeper. It's a buy-DVD, not a rent-DVD; you'll want to watch it again. (I've already watched it three times; the second viewing began about five minutes after the first one ended.)

Princess Mononoke is not appropriate for young children and it wasn't really intended for them. The themes in the film are very mature, and it contains a lot of blood and violence and disturbing images. None of that is gratuitous; all of it is necessary in order to tell that story.

However, Spirited Away was deliberately created as a film for children. It's appropriate even for very young kids (under 6); there's a bit of violence but it is very subdued, and there are a few brief scary parts where a kid will want to sit right next to Mommy or Daddy while watching it the first time. There is one scene which will have everyone in tears. However, overall the film is very gentle and surprisingly good humored, full of characters which look more scary than they actually are. Kids will love it.

With a lot of films about which it's said that "kids will love it" there's an implication "and adults will hate it" but not in this case. It works for adults, too, and maybe even better. It is an amazingly rich film. Like Princess Mononoke the animation craft is top quality and the story is extremely well constructed. Visually, it is stunning. Just as before, I was constantly surprised by the film, and yet everything which happened rang true in retrospective.

And where Princess Mononoke had an ending which was not really either uplifting or depressing (or perhaps was both), Spirited Away has the happiest and most uplifting ending you could hope for without being tacky and mushy.

But don't read any reviews which might give anything at all about the film away. Don't even read the DVD box. Just buy it, and watch it.

As always I watched it with the Japanese voices and English subtitles. The English dubbing is reported to be very good but I can't attest to that. If you're watching the film with a young kid, you'll definitely want to listen to the English dub, but I do recommend the Japanese voices as the only path to experiencing the film the way Miyazaki wanted it to be experienced.

There's a little girl sitting in the backseat of her parent's car, as they are driving to their new home to meet the movers. She's the one on the cover of the box. Her name's Chihiro. She's sullen; she didn't want to leave her old school and all her friends. That's where the film starts, and that's all you need to know about it. From that starting point you will constantly be surprised and delighted.