(Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)My love for Spirited Away is something that I find hard to define. I'm not one of those people who worships the ground that Hayao Miyazaki walks on, and as such I don't automatically love every film he's ever made simply because he made it. My feelings about Howl's Moving Castle were decidedly lukewarm, and, in all honesty, I've never actually seen My Neighbor Totoro in its entirety. I just never have gotten around to it. But I really adore Spirited Away.
Part of it could be because the first time I saw it I was in high school and I had been taking Japanese. Though I didn't see the film in Japanese, I did feel like I was taking a step in learning more about Japanese culture and, I'll admit, it felt good. Or it could be that my mom and I saw it at the Bijou (for you non-Eugenians, that's our independent theater) and there weren't many other people there. For some reason it made it seem all the more personal. I also love that, even after seeing this film 10+ times, I'm still not entirely sure what any of it means. Probably because I'm not Japanese. There are aspects of it that I'm sure resonate really well with people who have lived their entire lives in Japan. I'm certain that there are symbols in this film that just don't translate to an American audience. And I think that element of the mysterious and exotic appeals to me.
For me, Spirited Away ends up being a beautifully illustrated and whimsically told story about a young girl who wants to get her parents back. She meets interesting "people" (I use that term extremely loosely), does interesting things, and has a great adventure. And there's a dragon. I'm a sucker for dragons. I don't feel like I need to understand exactly what's happening and what the symbols mean to appreciate the sweeping, colorful beauty of Miyazaki's art. Because, ultimately, that's what Spirited Away is. Wonderful, colorful, whimsical moving art.
Part of it could be because the first time I saw it I was in high school and I had been taking Japanese. Though I didn't see the film in Japanese, I did feel like I was taking a step in learning more about Japanese culture and, I'll admit, it felt good. Or it could be that my mom and I saw it at the Bijou (for you non-Eugenians, that's our independent theater) and there weren't many other people there. For some reason it made it seem all the more personal. I also love that, even after seeing this film 10+ times, I'm still not entirely sure what any of it means. Probably because I'm not Japanese. There are aspects of it that I'm sure resonate really well with people who have lived their entire lives in Japan. I'm certain that there are symbols in this film that just don't translate to an American audience. And I think that element of the mysterious and exotic appeals to me.
For me, Spirited Away ends up being a beautifully illustrated and whimsically told story about a young girl who wants to get her parents back. She meets interesting "people" (I use that term extremely loosely), does interesting things, and has a great adventure. And there's a dragon. I'm a sucker for dragons. I don't feel like I need to understand exactly what's happening and what the symbols mean to appreciate the sweeping, colorful beauty of Miyazaki's art. Because, ultimately, that's what Spirited Away is. Wonderful, colorful, whimsical moving art.
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Let me start by saying that by no means do I think Spirited Away is a bad film. It's a weird film, to be sure, but it is definitely not bad. I like when animated movies, especially animated movies aimed at children, push the envelope, creating detailed story lines and complex characters, trusting kids to understand what they can and accept what they don't. And Spirited Away definitely does that.
Perhaps the biggest issue I had with Spirited Away was the hype. Just about every person I have spoken to about the film raved about how much they loved it, and how they found it so moving, and how it had changed the way they look at film. And I appreciate that everybody seems to like it. Heck, John Lasseter himself does the intro to the American version of the film on DVD. In short, there was no way this movie could live up to the hype unless it was a documentary showing the second coming of Christ, but it played like an episode of Doctor Who (By the way, who wouldn't want to see Jesus as the 12th Doctor? It would make for an interesting season, to say the least).
Alas, Spirited Away is not the greatest film I'd ever seen. Hayao Miyazaki clearly knows his way around a complex story, but despite the immense attention to detail, I found myself getting lost or confused several times. I found the way the story flowed to be a little off-putting, as it covered so much ground in so little time. Spirited Away is a very fast moving film, but I felt like it was jerking me around rather than allowing the story to flow cohesively.
Above all else in the film, and the one thing I took away from it, was the extremely awesome characters Miyazaki came up with. We have a talking frog, a weird ghost/man named No Face, a cross between a spider and an old guy, a Stink Spirit/River Spirit, a gigantic baby, humans who turn into pigs, and twins with awkwardly proportioned heads and bodies. Watching all of these characters (supplied with their American voices by an amazing cast including Suzanne Pleshette and David Ogden Stiers) interact with one another is absolutely fascinating, even if it doesn't make sense at times.
So what did I think of Spirited Away? I'd have to say I like the film, but not nearly as much as everyone seemed to think I would. That's okay, but it was still kind of a letdown. I wanted to fall into the story, but I couldn't quite get into it.
Perhaps the biggest issue I had with Spirited Away was the hype. Just about every person I have spoken to about the film raved about how much they loved it, and how they found it so moving, and how it had changed the way they look at film. And I appreciate that everybody seems to like it. Heck, John Lasseter himself does the intro to the American version of the film on DVD. In short, there was no way this movie could live up to the hype unless it was a documentary showing the second coming of Christ, but it played like an episode of Doctor Who (By the way, who wouldn't want to see Jesus as the 12th Doctor? It would make for an interesting season, to say the least).
Alas, Spirited Away is not the greatest film I'd ever seen. Hayao Miyazaki clearly knows his way around a complex story, but despite the immense attention to detail, I found myself getting lost or confused several times. I found the way the story flowed to be a little off-putting, as it covered so much ground in so little time. Spirited Away is a very fast moving film, but I felt like it was jerking me around rather than allowing the story to flow cohesively.
Above all else in the film, and the one thing I took away from it, was the extremely awesome characters Miyazaki came up with. We have a talking frog, a weird ghost/man named No Face, a cross between a spider and an old guy, a Stink Spirit/River Spirit, a gigantic baby, humans who turn into pigs, and twins with awkwardly proportioned heads and bodies. Watching all of these characters (supplied with their American voices by an amazing cast including Suzanne Pleshette and David Ogden Stiers) interact with one another is absolutely fascinating, even if it doesn't make sense at times.
So what did I think of Spirited Away? I'd have to say I like the film, but not nearly as much as everyone seemed to think I would. That's okay, but it was still kind of a letdown. I wanted to fall into the story, but I couldn't quite get into it.
I was just thinking earlier tonight, "Man, Jack and Caroline haven't watched a movie in a while." Oh, and Caroline, see My Neighbor Totoro. Soon.
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