Netflix: Spirited Away (2001)

[entelein]

Spirited Away

This animated feature felt like the sweetest nightmare.

From No-Face to the little soot balls to the paper birds, there was so much visceral information presented that it was easy to fall into Chihiro's world and hang out for a while.

The big scene in the bath house was totally awesome, and while the paper birds tweaked a nightmare memory of my own, the animation overall felt dreamy and fluid and particularly well thought out.

Sweet nightmares, fun journey for little Chihiro. Plot-wise, it felt a tiny bit like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, at least in some of the structure.

Comments

[thunderclap8.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore the little soot balls. When one of my friends got back from living in Japan for a year, he brought me a toy of one. Pull a string, let go, and it vibrates its way across the floor.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Those same soot balls show up in Miyazaki's "My Friend Totoro" at least. I think they've shown up tangentially in at least one other of his films, as well.

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

oh my god, awesome! i want one!! :)

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

this is probably my favorite of Miyazaki's films. there's something very subtle about it. it's adorable and has its fantastical eye-popping moments, yet i find there's an unspoken element of maturity to it that really appeals to me. it's in my top 5 all time favorite movies.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I think Totoro is my favorite, but it's a hard call. I'm also in love with Laputa -- train chases, sky pirates, STUFF. Man, that's a really hard call. And I'm smitten by Howl's, mostly because of the clockwork house. So many good movies.

Re: Spirited Away

[shad-0.livejournal.com]

Leaving aside my innate prejudice in favor of Lord Howl's Castle -- given my personal acquaintance with not one but two of the supporting voice cast in that film -- I did enjoy Spirited Away when I saw it in the theatre. One of the parts that I found the most fun was trying to identify all the passing references to various myths, such as those three hopping heads. It made me grin.