Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)

Released: July 20, 2001 in Japan

Studio: Toho

Genre: animation/fantasy/foreign

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 12.40 Worldwide: 365.48

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: 645.07 estimated

Directing: Hayao Miyazaki

Screenwriting: Hayao Miyazaki

Starring: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito, Yasuko Sawagachi, Tsunehiko Kamijo

Review:

Initially released in Japan in 2001 as Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, this was released as Spirited Away in the United States by Disney Studios over a year later. Until 2016’s Your Name, it was the highest-grossing anime movie of all time. ^EM’18 The movie makes three different Dave’s Movie Database genre lists – animation, foreign, and fantasy.

“Master animation director Hayao Miyazaki follows up on his record-breaking 1997 opus Princess Mononoke with this surreal…tale about a lost little girl.” ^RT Spirited Away, his “most successful film…is truly a moving work of art, in both senses. Every frame bursts with vibrant detail and beautifully fantastical invention.” ^EM’18 “It’s a bit like Alice In Wonderland, but better.” ^EM’18

Chihiro is “a sullen 10-year-old girl” ^IMD on an outing with her family. They “come upon a blocked tunnel; her parents decide to have a look around – even though Chihiro finds the place very creepy. When they pass through the tunnel, they discover an abandoned amusement park…After her mother and father help themselves to some tasty purloined morsels, they turn into giant pigs.” ^RT

Chihiro “learns that this very weird place, where all sorts of bizarre gods and monsters reside, is a holiday resort for the supernatural after their exhausting tour of duty in the human world.” ^RT She “has to toil in a bath house for demons to return her piggy parents to human form.” ^EM’18 She also learns that “if she forgets her real name…then she will never be permitted to leave.” ^RT