Other Titles • Spirited Away (2002) • Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi • Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2002) • Sen (2001) • Sen and the Mysterious Disappearance of Chihiro (2001) • The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro (2002) • Chihiros Reise ins Zauberland (2003)
Synopses for Spirited Away (2001)
1.
The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba (Pleshette again). The resolve, bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. MPAA Rated: PG ("Some scary moments") --Charles Solomon
(35 votes)
2.
A young girl is trapped in a strange new world of spirits who must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and rescue her parents.
(32 votes)
3.
Directed by animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, SPIRITED AWAY is the tale of Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), a young girl who is taken down an unusual road by her parents while moving to a new home in an unfamiliar town. The curiosity of Chihiro's mother (Lauren Holly) and father (Michael Chiklis) leads the reluctant child into what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Soon her parents are greedily feasting on various delights from an enticing food stand and are literally turned into pigs. The frightened and bewildered girl then encounters a young man named Haku (Jason Marsden), who explains what she must do to navigate this strange and magical realm. Finding employment in a bathhouse for spirits and other odd characters--including kimono-wearing frogs, lumbering tentacled monsters, and a mysterious apparition named No Face--Chihiro attempts to figure out how she can free her parents from the clutches of the resort's owner, a powerful witch named Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette). In the process, she makes some very eccentric friends--and has to deal with some notoriously stinky customers.
A surreal adventure reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, SPIRITED AWAY continues Miyazaki's streak of groundbreaking animated films that also includes PRINCESS MONONOKE and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. Succeeding MONONOKE as the most successful film in Japanese cinema history, this charming movie follows its own bizarre yet engaging logic as it reveals a cast of fascinating characters and jaw-dropping settings through stunningly beautiful hand-crafted animation. A movie experience like no other, SPIRITED AWAY is sure to enchant audiences of all ages, leaving viewers grinning with a giddy sense of wonderment.
(32 votes)
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