Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1203 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Animated, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba, the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba. The resolve, bravery and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. --Charles Solomon

Special Features

• Full feature storyboard to finished film comparison
  
• The Making Of Spirited Away Nippon TV special
  
• Japanese trailers and TV spots (with English subtitles)
  
• Exclusive trailer for The Cat's Return
  
• Interactive menu
  
• Scene access

DVD Technical Information:

• Language: Japanese
  
• Subtitles English
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
  
• Running Time: 2 hours approx.

Synopsis
Directed by animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, SPIRITED AWAY is the tale of Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), a young girl who is taken down an unusual road by her parents while moving to a new home in an unfamiliar town. The curiosity of Chihiro's mother (Lauren Holly) and father (Michael Chiklis) leads the reluctant child into what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Soon her parents are greedily feasting on various delights from an enticing food stand and are literally turned into pigs. The frightened and bewildered girl then encounters a young man named Haku (Jason Marsden), who explains what she must do to navigate this strange and magical realm. Finding employment in a hotel for spirits and other odd characters--including kimono-wearing frogs, lumbering tentacled monsters, and a mysterious apparition named No Face--Chihiro attempts to figure out how she can free her parents from the clutches of the resort's owner, a powerful witch named Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette). In the process, she makes some very eccentric friends--and has to deal with some notoriously stinky customers.
A surreal adventure reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, SPIRITED AWAY continues Miyazaki's streak of groundbreaking animated films that also includes PRINCESS MONONOKE and MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO. Succeeding MONONOKE as the most successful film in Japanese cinema history, this charming movie follows its own bizarre yet engaging logic as it reveals a cast of fascinating characters and jaw-dropping settings through stunningly beautiful hand-crafted animation. A movie experience like no other, SPIRITED AWAY is sure to enchant audiences of all ages, leaving viewers grinning with a giddy sense of wonderment.

Customer Reviews

Probably the best film I've ever seen
I just loved this film so much, watching it felt like a dream. I'm always sceptical about films with so much hype but this lived up to it and more: The story is beautiful, the animation is superb and the setting and characters ooze with charm. After watching this I am gradually checking out the Ghibli back catalogue and am yet to be disappointed by any of them. Howl's moving castle would have to be my favouite so far (After Spirited away of course!)

One of the best animated movies ever
I first saw this on a UK satellite channel in the middle of the day while channel surfing; and for the first time ever I sat all the way through something I'd accidentally found. A spectacular film, Spirited Away filled me, a cynical 20-year-old, with wonder throughout.

The story is wonderful and Chihiro is easy to relate to - female viewers will remember being like Chihiro and male viewers will remember girls who were.

If I had to pick a negative point, I'd say the ending with the "granny" character seems a little contrived. This character comes out of nowhere and makes everything all better, and is a little twee, but it's not a major point.

The animation is great, with none of the awful 2-frames-per-second, siezure-inducing, brightly coloured Pokemon-style dross that most people think of when you say "anime" to them. This version is the Japanese version with English subtitles, which obviously has excellent voice acting, insofar as I can tell as I don't speak Japanese; I have the English dubbed version too and the voice acting is good in that too, especially Chihiro. For once, a good English dub!

A great film for newcomers to the genre and hardcore anime fans alike.

Bought this due to rave reviews
I bought this becaue of the rave reviews. I have always liked the idea of anime but when I actually sit down and try to watch it, its all a bit crap to me with the odd exception. I love traditional animation and I'm a huge animation fan. Anyway bought this due to rave reviews and I thought is was above average. Great animation, a little more story than your usual anime film, but was still too all over the place and whacky for my liking. The best results is when you mix american storytelling with japanese animation. aka Thundercats.. Now that was awesome for its time. Anyway I give this 3 stars. Very good effort.