Day 22: Remember Your Name!

SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Starring the (English) voices of: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, John Ratzenberger, Tara Strong

I've mentioned before how much I dislike it when people hype a movie so much that my expectations of it can't possibly live up to the film itself.  Well, the hype was astronomically high for Spirited Away, the most praised film of famed Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki.  But this time around, I just popped the movie into my DVD player and said, "Forget with all the hype.  Let it speak for itself."  And I'm glad I did.  I think I enjoyed it better.

It's films like this that I regret not seeing on the Big Screen when I had the chance.  I would have even settled for someone's home theater system, because my tiny little portable DVD player just didn't do this film justice.  The scope of the film is so immense, the world so vast and the animation so exquisite that it demands to be seen on the largest screen you can find. 

The story is complex, as well.  After her parents are turned into pigs, a spoiled, bratty young girl named Chihiro sets off to find them.  But before she can, she stumbles upon an old-fashioned Japanese bath house that turns out to be a sauna for the spirits.  And in Japanese mythology, there are a ton of different spirits, so things are pretty busy.  Soon, this whiny little kid, who never had to work a day in her life, is put to work cleaning up after the many strange nether-beings who patronize the house.  And some of them are pretty disgusting - particularly the Stink Demon.  Chihiro adjusts as best she can with the help of her co-worker Lin and a strange boy named Haku, who is rumored to be the henchman for the wicked Yubaba, who runs the house.  But things get even stranger with the arrival of the mysterious "No-Face." 

It can be daunting for American viewers to get through all the Japanese mythology, strange (and sometimes disgusting) creatures and somewhat graphic violence of this film.  But I think this film has a lot more guts than most animated films released in the States.  Here, animation is more or less kid stuff, with few exceptions.  But it was one of American animation's leading figures - Pixar's John Lasseter - who was responsible for bringing this film to America.  And when I think about the films that American animation companies have released since - The Incredibles, Kung-Fu Panda, Up and How to Train your Dragon, I can't help but think that this film sort of spurred them on to creates something a bit more mature.  And by "mature," I don't mean bathroom humor and gratuitous swearing.  That's about as immature as you can get.  I'm talking about films that aren't afraid to tackle subjects animated films considered verboten even ten years ago.  In the first ten minutes of Up, we deal with love, marriage and death.  If you ever get the chance to build a time machine, go back to Disney in 1995 or so and try pitching that. 

Spirited Away is quite the emotional ride.  All movies are, in one way or another, about change.  The change we see in Chihiro from the beginning of this film to the end is also a change we can feel.  The world around her is so engrossing that the audience is sucked into it as well.  We are along for the ride.  Not only is this ride incredible, but it offers an awesome view.

Just make sure you watch it on a big screen.  You'll be glad you did.