From Amazon.com
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
Additional Features
The most interesting extra feature on the two-disc set is the Nippon Television Special on the making of
Spirited Away, not because it's significantly different from American making-of programs, but because the camera crew was allowed to film Miyazaki at work. It's fascinating to watch the visionary director explaining how individual movements should be animated, and even performing the little dance the frog-master does to welcome the No-Face to Yubaba's bath house. (Old animators describe Walt Disney giving similar performances, but no comparable footage exists.) It's also striking to see how intimate Studio Ghibli is, unencumbered by the tiers of management that burden American studios. The scene comparisons enable the viewer to study the storyboards for the film, which Miyazaki draws himself. These simple yet wonderfully vivid images capture the essence of a mood, a movement, an expression. "Behind the Microphone" offers a fairly standard behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the excellent English version of
Spirited Away.
--Charles Solomon
Amazon.ca
Après nous avoir ravis avec
Mon voisin Totoro et
Princesse Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki nous propose un nouveau voyage au cœur de son surprenant imaginaire. Couronné de l’oscar du meilleur film d’animation en 2003,
Spirited Away privilégie une vision onirique d’auteur.
Sur la route qui les mène à leur nouvelle maison, Chihiro, 10 ans, et ses parents sont loin de se douter de l’aventure qui les attend. Au détour d’un raccourci, ils découvrent un tunnel improbable qu’ils décident d’explorer. Ce n’est pas la lumière qu’ils trouveront au bout de celui-ci, mais plutôt un monde étrange et fascinant où les adultes sont transformés en cochons et les petites filles contraintes de travailler pour de vieilles sorcières hydrocéphales, maîtresses des bains où se purifient les esprits.
Sorte d’Alice au pays des merveilles à la sauce nippone, Spirited Away est un film fantastique aux deux sens du terme. Au rythme de l’espiègle et attachante Chihiro, nous sommes initiés à un univers surnaturel peuplé d’êtres merveilleux, inquiétants et amusants, faits de traits fluides et de couleurs vives, un théâtre de rebondissements tous plus captivants les uns que les autres. Le toujours créatif Hayao Miyazaki fait mouche, encore une fois, avec son conte bourré de charmantes idées et d’images poétiques, qui ne sacrifie jamais l’intelligence de son public sur l’autel de la facilité. Un enchantement pour tous ceux qui voudront bien renouer avec leurs âmes d’enfants. --Helen Faradji
