neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Spirited Away
	Hayao Miyazaki Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, John Ratzenberger 2001		The brilliant Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki — creator of the internationally beloved "Princess Mononoke," "Kiki's Delivery Service," "My Neighbor Totoro" and other exquisitely rendered full-length cartoon features — has topped himself. His "Spirited Away" is a thoroughly modern family film in the tradition of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice in Wonderland." A plucky little girl named Chihiro is "spirited away" when she follows her parents into a perilous, magical dimension hidden beyond a suburban housing development. She must find a way to save herself and her family and return to the normal world. Chihiro's odyssey has a particularly Eastern sensibility due to phantasmagoric, pantheistic characters she encounters; it also has universal resonance for anyone who remembers the sadness and disassociation of relocating to a new neighborhood during childhood. Dubbed into English, "Spirited Away" loses nothing in translation. It's awe-inspiring in its creativity and moving in its conception of the fears and wonders of youth.