Spirited Away - Blu-ray + DVD

A truly wonderful film that is a masterpiece!

Chihiro (Daveigh Chase) is an apathetic, 10 year-old girl being forced to move to a new town with her parents. During the car ride to their new home, her father gets lost and they come across what looks to be an abandoned town. Chihiro is skeptical of the place, but her parents take advantage of some free food available at a restaurant, despite no one being around. Then things start to get weird. She is warned by a boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) to leave immediately, but her route back has turned into a river. She finds that her parents have turned into pigs and various types of spirits are now populating this mysterious town. It seems that she is now in a spirit world and must figure out how to get home.Spirited Away is probably the most well-known film to come from Studio Ghibli and the legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki. It really stands out as an exemplary example of animated films.To start off with, the animation in this film is outstanding. There is a ton of detail in the background art that really helps to bring alive both the real world and the fantasy world that Chihiro spends most of the film in. The designs and animation of the characters themselves is well done and really helps make this film a memorable experience. This is especially notable with Chihiro herself who goes through many emotions and experiences throughout the film from her humorous reaction to meeting a stink spirit to a sad realization over her situation. The other characters are very memorable in their own right as well. Taking place in a fantasy setting really gave the creators of this film a lot of chances to come up with imaginative characters, such as the various spirits seen, and they used this opportunity well. This includes the witch-like Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette) who runs the bathhouse along with the mysterious spirit No-Face (Bob Bergen) that follows Chihiro around.All other aspects of this film work as well. As I have already mentioned, the characters and story are well written and really help make this movie memorable. The music is top notch, composed by Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi. In addition to this, I thought that Disney did a good job with their dub that stays faithful to the original story, for those that prefer dubs.This Blu-ray set comes with many bonus features. This includes a making-of movie, the original Japanese soundtrack, storyboards, and trailers.All in all, this is nothing short of an excellent animated film that is sure to be enjoyed by both kid and adult fans of animation.

I'm excited about this anime. I've seen a bit of the thriller for it and it seems super good. I can definitely recommend it to others who haven't seen this movie yet. It arrived on time without a scratch, nicely packaged.

As always, a great movie!

Spirited Away is the Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki film that made of me a full on fan. I am now taking a moment to make all of the squee! sounds a person one tenth my age might make in reviewing this movie.To forestall the flow of superlatives that this movie deserves allow for a little admin.Spirited Away is Family Friendly. Having a young girl as the hero may make it a tough sell for small boys, but it is such a well told story, they may let themselves be won over.It is certainly aimed at the younger family members, but in my house, two adults, no kids it is a favorite movie. Miyazaki has made a movie with enough sophistication and depth to be more than kiddie show. Studio Ghibli as usual has made this such a beautiful movie, that it can be enjoyed as an animated art show even with the sound off.Spirited Away is what a fairy story should be. It contains almost all of the classical elements, but it refuses to be easy to anticipate. There is always an unexpected detail, or another beautiful image that make this a viewing delight.Observing the conventions, ten year-old, whiny and grumpy Chihiro Ogino(voiced magnificently by child actor Daveigh Chase) is moving with her parents from her home to a new life in the country. Along the way they find themselves in what they believe to be an abandoned theme park. Her parents succumb to the temptation of rich and savory food and are turned into pigs. Chihiro being too scared to eat avoids the transformation and learns that this is a magical town where spirits come for their holiday and to take advantage of the wondrous Bath House.The Bath house is ruled by the ruthless, but not entirely evil Yubaba (Again magnificently voiced by Suzanne Pleshette). Here the young Chihiro signs away her name to become one of the workers. Literally she signs away her name and becomes known as Sen. She cannot go back to her old life until she remember her old name. She will be called upon to perfume heavy work, make friends of unlikely spirits, help fight evil and make sacrifices in favor of others.So far this is fairly standard fairy tale stuff. But back it with almost unlimited imaginings of what spirits might look like, non-traditional plotting and depth of imagination.Miyazaki and Ghibli have peopled a complete magical world and shown us a ten year-old girl who can stand up to it and win it and us to her side.This is my second copy of Spirited Away and at least my 4th viewing. It is that good.

This is a favorite of mine. It arrived on time and in great condition. I highly recommend this movie both of my daughters 16 and 10 like it. Very engaging and I consider it to be a fun adventure film.