Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)

In "Spirited Away," Hayao Miyazaki's followup to his late-90's masterpiece "Princess Mononoke," a young girl named Chihiro is moving with her family to a new house. On their way to the new neighborhood, however, the family stumbles upon an old, abandoned amusement park and decide to investigate. Within the park, they find a small village, complete with stores, restaurants and a large, elegant bathhouse. When Chihiro's parents gorge greedily on the food in the park, they suddenly turn into pigs and the young girl is left alone as darkness falls and spirits begin appearing.

"Spirited Away" is Miyazaki's usual -- a whimsical tale of imagination and wonder, riddled with Japanese mythology and legend and sprinkled here and there with life experience from Miyazaki himself. The movie tackles a lot of issues for such a cute little tale, not the least of which include maturity, innocence, human nature and greed. It's a much more accessible film to American audiences than say, "Nausicaa" or "Porco Rosso," but the movie is still true to the director's unique, beautiful style.

Shabby American voice-acting aside, the film is fantastic. It makes me pine for traditional 2-D animation like nothing else. Miyazaki is truly a visionary. I hope he decides to negate those rumors of retirement and honor us with a few more great films.

The Final Verdict: 8/10