Product Details

• Directors: Hayao Miyazaki
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• DVD Release Date: April 15, 2003
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (874 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JLEU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #1 in Movies & TV > DVD > Anime & Manga
  • #53 in Movies & TV > DVD > Kids & Family
• For more information about "Spirited Away" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), 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 (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) 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 (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), 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 (Pleshette again). 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. MPAA Rated: PG ("Some scary moments") --Charles Solomon

Product Description

From one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the history of animated cinema comes the most acclaimed film of 2002. Hayao Miyazaki's latest triumph, filled with astonishing animation and epic adventure, is a dazzling masterpiece for the ages. It's a "wonderfully welcoming work of art that's as funny and entertaining as it is brilliant, beautiful, and deep" (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal). SPIRITED AWAY is a wondrous fantasy about a young girl, Chihiro, trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and return her family to the outside world. An unforgettable story brimming with creativity, SPIRITED AWAY will take you on a journey beyond your imagination. "To enter the world of Hayao Miyazaki is to experience a kind of lighthearted enchantment that is unique to the world of animation" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). It's a fantastic tale the whole family will want to experience over and over again.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

301 of 328 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding breath of fresh air, March 15, 2003

By 

Jason Rabin (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spirited Away (DVD)

Spirited Away is yet another masterpiece from Japan's undisputed master of animation. Although I did not enjoy it as much as Princess Mononoke, I was more entertained by this film than by any Disney movie made in the past five years. Speaking of Disney, I thought I would clear up a few misconceptions that some people have concerning this film. Firstly, for those people who complain that Miyazaki's films (as well as other anime) are for adults, and not children, I should point out that Miyazaki has explicitly stated that Spirited was made for young girls. (in other words, Chihiro's age) This doesn't mean that the film can only be enjoyed by pre-pubescant girls (I myself am a 22 year old male); it just means that you should not go into this film expecting something geared towards adults, the way Mononoke was.
Now I have noticed several people on this site comparing Spirited to Disney. Everyone seems to agree that it is nothing like Disney, because it is scary. Some parents even go so far to say that Spirited is inappropriate for children. Let me just say that you are all both right and wrong on this issue. Spirited Away is nothing like Disney as it is NOW. However, if you look at classics like Snow White, and especially Pinocchio, you'll see that these films have much more in common with Spirited Away than with, say, Hercules, or Tarzan. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who claims that Spirited is too scary for children ought to remember what Disney used to be like. In Snow White, the wicked Queen ordered the huntsman to cut out Snow White's heart. Even more telling, in Pinocchio, the main character ends up on an island for wicked children, who are mercilessly transformed into beasts and sold into slavery. Can you honestly say that this is somehow more wholesome or less nightmarish than what goes on in Spirited? Anyone who remembers these films recognizes that Spirited Away's often nightmarish sense of morality and justice (parents being turned into pigs for their greed) is not novel to the American imagination, but something old, something many of us have clearly forgotten, even though we saw these very films as children! This harkens back to a time when Americans had a much clearer sense of morality, a much greater willingness to recognize an absolute line between right and wrong. For me, this is refreshing, for you it may not be. As for your children being scared, I agree it is a possibility. I was scared when I saw Snow White and Pinocchio, yet I enjoyed those two films immensely. Moreover, they are both considered to be undisputed classics of American animation. So to all those parents who think they can comfortably dismiss Spirited Away as some alien abomination, you had better look closer to home, because it may not be quite as alien as you thought.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was Blown Away, February 18, 2003

By 

Royce E. Buehler "figvine" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spirited Away (DVD)

Chihiro, a typical slightly spoiled ten year old girl, wanders off the beaten path with her parents, and is thrust into a bewildering otherworld. Her parents have soon fallen under a malign enchantment, and suddenly it falls to her, with the aid of a mysteriously familiar boy named Haku, to rescue them. She has to decide where to place her trust, as it becomes apparent that Haku is in the service of the villainous tyrant grandmother Yabubu, who rules over this otherworld.

It is Chihiro's spirit that steers her through these uncharted waters. We watch her discover in herself and exhibit, tentatively at first but with growing confidence, all of the virtues a fairy-tale hero must learn: resourcefulness, compassion, politeness (hey, this *is* Japanese!) and courage. Because we've witnessed her ordinary beginnings, we identify with and believe in all her emerging qualities. It's all done with a deft matter-of-fact touch that never cloys and never preaches. The animation is quietly dazzling. The plot is dense and full of surprises. The symbolism is as exotic as a Shinto shrine, and as familiar as the echos set up by the best fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen or old Russia.

The cream of American animation for children in recent years - films like Aladdin or Monsters Inc - have drawn in audiences with screenplays written on a double track: a simple, comforting story for the kids, and a long series of nods and winks over the kids' heads to the adults, catering to our sense of irony and patting us on the back for catching all the topical and cinematic references. And that's been fun as far as it goes.

"Spirited Away" throws all that into the dustbin, goes back to the basics, to the conventions and surprises of timeless fairy tale, to a character-based humor that appeals to all ages, and to the sense of wonder that reawakens the child in everyone. It's an hour and a half of pure, funny poetry. It hits every mark it aims for. It's an unqualified classic. And it will become the first DVD I buy for my two year old grandson, even though it will have to be held in trust until he turns six, and can watch it without being freaked out by the spooky parts.

66 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lesson For Disney, March 13, 2003

By 

A. Liu - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spirited Away (DVD)

While Major Hollywood studios believe the audiences are tired of watching plain hand-drawn cartoons and began to incorporate more special effects into 2-D animation, yet with disappointing results (Titan A.E., Atlantis, and the most recent Treasure Planet), they have almost totally given up on traditional animation, and focus on producing 3-D computer animation. After a series of successful and charming CG cartoon, one could not help but to wonder: is this the end of hand-drawn cartoon artists? (some may argue that they could get the job as storyboard artists)

The point that they are really missing is, what is missing from the recent 2-D animation features, is not the blasting visual effects, or floor cracking sounds. The real thing that is missing from them is a "heart".

See "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", and "Monsters, Inc." (all produced by Pixar Studio, who is, in the writer's opinion, superior than their rival competitors), while they are indeed visually revolutionary, the focus is still on story telling - story that combines humor, excitement, and ultimately family-oriented heart-warming theme.

"Spirited Away" is simply magical, enchanting, funny, and genuinely touching. In the beginning of the film some may be distracted by the in comparison lower frame-rate (i.e. the character movements may not seem as smooth compare to the Hollywood animations), but you will not be able to help but to awe at each beautifully rendered frame. The artistic level and the use of colors in the drawing are all first class. Moreover, 30 minutes into the film, you will probably forget it is drawings that you are watching, because everything inside the screen all comes alive! (Perhaps because it reaches a certain realistic level, some of the scene may be too grizzly and scary)

It did not become the highest grossing movie in Japan ever for no reason, and it certainly deserves more attention it received in the western world. The ballroom scene in "Beauty and the Beast" never fails to bring tears in my eyes, and it reminds us why we watch cartoon in the beginning. "Spirited Away" achieves in the same way, and it achieves it like a breeze among all these competitions today.