
Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihiro's dismay. On the way to their new home, Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives down a lonely one-lane road which dead-ends in front of a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They go through the tunnel and find an abandoned amusement park on the other side, with its own little town. When her parents see a restaurant with great-smelling food but no... (Full plot summary below)
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Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihiro's dismay. On the way to their new home, Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives down a lonely one-lane road which dead-ends in front of a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They go through the tunnel and find an abandoned amusement park on the other side, with its own little town. When her parents see a restaurant with great-smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat and pay later. However, Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to explore the theme park a bit more. She meets a boy named Haku who tells her that Chihiro and her parents are in danger, and they must leave immediately. She runs to the restaurant and finds that her parents have turned into pigs. In addition, the theme park turns out to be a town inhabited by demons, spirits, and evil gods. At the center of the town is a bathhouse where these creatures go to relax. The owner of the bathhouse is the evil witch Yubaba, who is intent on keeping all trespassers as captive workers, including Chihiro. Chihiro must rely on Haku to save her parents in hopes of returning to their world.
Leave your thoughts about Spirited Away.
| Dallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonIt would be a masterpiece in any language. |
| The New York TimesElvis MitchellThe towering, lost dreaminess at the heart of the film is an unmistakable obsession of this director. |
| Portland OregonianShawn LevyAn out-and-out charmer. It's almost impossible to do justice in words either to the visual richness of the movie, which melanges traditional Japanese clothes and architecture with both Victorian and modern-day artifacts, or to the character-filled storyline, with human figures, harpies and grotesque creatures. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranPrepare to be astonished by Spirited Away. |
| Rolling StonePeter TraversMiyazaki is the Pied Piper -- see Spirited Away and you'll follow him anywhere. |
| Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternIt's enchanting and delightful in its own way, and has a good heart. It is the best animated film of recent years, the latest work by Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master who is a god to the Disney animators. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumA triumph of psychological depth and artistic brilliance offered as the magical adventures of one skinny little girl. |
| New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerThe most deeply and mysteriously satisfying animated feature to come along in ages. |
| EmpirePatrick PetersThe fact that Miyazaki and his team hand-draw the images before they're digitally coloured and animated gives them an artistry that has been woefully lacking from so many recent American features. |
| USA TodayClaudia PuigDirector Hayao Miyazaki treats his audience as imaginative and intelligent human beings, rather than catering to kids with rote displays of silliness, stunts and scares. |