Miyazaki Rules!

[Betty Jo Tucker]

I saw SPIRITED AWAY at the Telluride Film Festival and was almost as captivated by this film as I was with Miyazaki's PRINCESS MONONOKE. What a masterful job of animation and storytelling!

Here's the URL for my review:

http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=291


Betty Jo
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
http://www.reeltalkreviews.com

[Ansonm]

Can you post it here? I will visit your site as well. But since we're here, talking about the film...

Anson

[Betty Jo Tucker]

Sorry, Ansonm, copyright problems arise when posting my review somewhere other than on ReelTalk Movie Reviews.

Thanks so much for your willingness to visit my site!

Betty Jo
http://www.reeltalkreviews.com

[Ansonm]

Got it. I'll take a look.
Anson

[tabuno]

This great animated motion picture contains a lengthy portrayal of many strange events, weird shapes, both attractive and repulsive sights, both loveable and forgettable characters. This is a deep movie with a lot of action, great detail to animation, and many twisting steps from fantasy to magic, to comedy, to sadness, to whimsical imagination. There are thrilling, breathtaking experiences, of long steps down into the bowels of goal hungry furnaces, to ghostly figures, and exotic smells and flavors of the orient. We are drawn to the main girl's lonely plight and her heroic path as well as different friends she meets along the way. A densely rich treat of mindful play by a great director of animation.

[SinjinSB]

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) (2001) - *** (Out of 4)
The things I enjoyed most about this Japanese animated feature are it's pleasing visual qualities and it's interesting characters. I've heard it compared to Alice in Wonderland which I can definitely see, but I was also reminded of The Neverending Story as I watched it...maybe because of the dragon/boy character Haku. Regardless of what you might compare it to, it's a tale of a young girl who is thrust into an alternate world full of strange, but interesting characters. If it has a flaw, I felt it ran a bit long at over 2 hours...though I admit I was a bit tired while watching it. It's quirky characters and stunning animation are pleasing to watch, but it didn't quite live up to the hype I had heard about the movie prior to watching it. One other note, I've read others say it's good for the entire family, I think really young kids might not appreciate it that much.