Forum - View topicREVIEW: Spirited Away BD+DVD
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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It just ends up being remembered as "Disney SHOULD have started with this one."
Being forced to show Princess Mononoke in theaters was bragging rights for Toho/Tokuma, like our bragging over Japan's Frozen-mania, but I think even the most 90's-nostalgic anime-breakout fan will admit Mononoke was not the movie to show to first-time US audiences who had literally never even heard of anime, let alone Ghibli, before Disney's Kiki, Troma's Totoro and Streamline's Cagliostro. As we can see by the entire generation that claims to be anime fans from the day they heard of Spirited after it won the Oscar. We were coming straight off all the similarly self-determined/empowered genki-working-girl optimism of Kiki's dubbed VHS in the US, and when we found out it was, gasp, foreign, Spirited was "Japanese-looking" and surreal enough to tell us this was something different from American animation, while still giving us a Kiki-like heroine we could actually identify with. In the scene where she forces medicine down the dragon throat of cursed, humorless Haku, it was like we were watching the avenging spiritual showdown between Kiki and Mononoke, and Kiki was winning....Eat it, eat it, this'll cure you! 
Also, it's just on the boundary between Miyazaki's stories of adventurous kids in Nausicaa and Castle, and his goopy plotless unexplained magic-for-magic's-sake scenes in Howl's Moving Castle and (to some degree) Tales From Earthsea, where he wouldn't even bother to let us in on what was happening so long as he could show something artsy and unusual. It's sort of the last perfect-storm nexus of all the things Hayao did right, before he would start doing them wrong. |
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GVman
 Posts: 729 |
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FWIW, I don't remember being particularly impressed by the film, but that was ten years ago when I was 13. It's probably due for a rewatch.
The important part, though is its message, and it's one that needs to return to anime. Hell, it needs to return to entertainment, period. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18187 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, when I rewatched this a couple of years ago, I found it to hold up so well (even on DVD) that it made my Top 10 of the 2000s list. It's still one of my go-to titles when I'm asked to make recommendations to people who have little to no familiarity with anime.
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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This is one of my all time favorite movies in general. One of the few I've actually re-watched several times. Of course I think the movie is wonderful and still holds up. Though, I am a little sad that there isn't much to this Blu-ray.
Also, I always thought this dub was pretty good. At least it didn't have Elle Fanning making screeching sounds like in the Totoro dub. |
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PetitePuff
 Posts: 68 |
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My fave movie ever!
 now that it's finally on Blu-ray I can buy it and add it to my shelf. Yay!
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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This is my favorite Miyazaki movie, my favorite Ghibli movie, and my second favorite anime movie of all time. I should probably double-dip for this Blu-Ray at some point.
I find that, despite the innate "Japanese-ness" of the visuals, I get a feeling that I've been to that world. Not literally, obviously, but it feels like it exist within the margins of my own dreams, it's so identifiable as all the fantasy worlds of children, to the point where even my first viewing gave me a strange sense of nostalgia, something in the colors, the emotions, the situations that felt like, "Yeah, I've experienced this somehow, but look at how fresh it's exposed." The train ride part alone is worth more than its weight in gold. Beautiful, can't-miss, must-rewatch film. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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It's hard for me to imagine Miyazaki's movies not holding up with time - at most, I guess Nausicaä looks weak when compared to Princess Mononoke, but that's about it. Not sure if having first watched his movies only in 2010, long after his prime, makes me less or more qualified to judge this though.
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unitmikey
 Posts: 286 |
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Yeah, Spirited Away is still the best anime ever made imo.
The visuals are beyond amazing, and yes, they look better than anything produced today, even the later Ghibli films. I'm also glad this review pointed out what Miyazaki said about the film, because the script is a lot better and powerful than people give it credit for. The accolades are quite frankly mostly for the visuals, but there is so much truth to it when it says the life can be a freakishly difficult sh*thole. Ultimately the resolve is amazing, that it will be worth it in the end because of the person you become. But yeah, the dub is actually really good EXCEPT for the two bad jokes they throw in. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I love this film, which is notable for me because I am NOT a Ghibli devotee. I think Spirited Away is the best of the studio because it is more "mainstream" (odd, all things considered) than Totoro and Kiki (which are both pretty "slow") and less "preachy" (compared to his more "exciting" works like Naussica and Mononoke). Spirited Away is more deft and subtle, having something to tell you but letting you discover it rather than beating you over the head, while also entertaining you and keeping your attention.
I think it fully deserved the Oscar, and really represents Miyazaki at his peak. It really is one of the VERY rare movies that truly is for (as Walt Disney said) the child in all of us. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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It's a solidly good film but it ain't spectacular. I've seen plenty of animated movies which are its equal or better, so it's unfortunate that people focus so much on this one film.
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Well, it was Hayao's concept that I was trying to point out problems with, ie. that Ged was shown as "Look at all the natural-magic things he can do!" without any sort of remote framing context, or source or limitations, which felt like Hayao throwing all the nonsensical "magic" imagery at us in Howl's. (Where, as Roger Ebert pointed out, after a while you just end up shrugging "Yeah, whatever".) With Spirited, we have all the wild and woolly creatures of the god-city and Yubaba's office, but we at least have the context of Chihiro having to navigate them for the first time, so we have something to latch onto to understand her puzzlement at something new in every scene. Not that I still have a clue what all those flying paper-T things were...Hayao's symptoms were there in the early stages (and in the last half hour of Mononoke), the disease just hadn't gone terminal yet. 
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5824 Location: Virginia, United States |
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There is nothing unfortunate about it. Just because people like this movie and it won an Oscar, doesn't mean love isn't being shown to other anime movies. Personally, I like Princess Mononoke better, but Spirited Away is still a great movie. |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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Not enough love for him I guess. Not like its anything new for a real gem to not get the recognition it deserves. I'm with you, Mononoke is my favorite Ghibli. It's slow paced and long so its hard for a lot of people to enjoy. The way Mononoke is framed always made it feel more like an anime movie for people that like cinema, us snobs that actually see what makes an Ingmar Burgman or Fellini movie special. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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For the record, Princess Mononoke is my favorite Ghibli film and I think it's Miyazaki's masterpiece.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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I agree with dtm42. Spirited Away is a well made movie, but it is not spectacular. I consider Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke the only spectacular and amazing gems that Ghibli has created. Whisper of the Heart, Kiki's Delivery Service and Nausica of the Valley of the Wind are very solid movies. I group Spirited Away with Castle in the Sky, which are fine movies, but they are not great to me. Last edited by Angel M Cazares on Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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