Another film from Hayao Miyazaki, another testament to his ardor for the environment.
Another brilliant work in its own right.
Of course Spirited Away is a good movie. Many people consider it Hayao's best movie out of a very impressive lineup. It is up there, but I still like Totoro a little more for it's quietness. Totoro is a very contented movie.
Spirited Away is halfway between the two types of movies I have seen from Miyazaki: his epic fantasy movies set in a more unearthly environment and his 'this-is-sorta-earth' movies. The 'this-is-sorta-earth' movies are more homey feeling, even though I have never been to Japan. They usually have more dynamic, less extreme personalities populating the animated landscape.
Spirited Away moves from earth to the spirit world (faery) and then back again. It has a very similar balance between fantasy and reality as one would see in a Neil Gaiman work (such as Coraline). It is very good at pulling emotion out of the viewer as Chihiro, the main character, reacts as one would expect as her world begins to be destroyed around her. That doesn't mean that this is a sad movie (throughout), for she adapts and grows and becomes much stronger.
The movie means a lot of things. Some of them blatantly, some of them not so much. It has an ideology which it pushes, but it also has characters who have purposes and motives and things just happen, like in real life. There are a lot of lessons which can be learned here.
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