Our take
Frequently considered one of the greatest animated movies of all times, and certainly the highest-grossing film in Japanese history, Spirited Away is Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli at their very best. It was also the first non-English animation movie to win an Oscar. On the surface, it’s a film about a Chihiro Ogino (Hiiragi), a young girl who stumbles into an abandoned theme park with her parents. In a creepy spiritual world full of Shinto folklore spirits, she sees all kinds of magic and fantastic creatures, while having to find a way to save her parents and escape. In addition to the adventure, the coming-of-age theme, and the motifs of ancient Japanese lore, the film can also be understood as a critique of the Western influence on Japanese culture and the struggle for identity in the wake of the 1990s economic crisis. A deep, fast-paced, and hypnotizing journey.
Streaming arrival
What it won
Other
2 noms
The story
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.
Elsewhere
"It's an amazing work, filled with a visual intelligence that's meticulously composed and obscenely clever."
— Michael Agger
"[Spirited Away is] the most deeply and mysteriously satisfying animated feature to come along in ages."
— Peter Rainer
Magic is real and it lives in Japan under the tip of Hayao Miyazaki’s pencil. This is, hands down, the best aimated movie of this century.