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Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, one of the most prominent and influential animators in world cinema (and, of course, virtually unknown in the United States), Spirited Away is the story of young Chihiro, a 10 year-old girl who, like most 10 year-old girls, is somewhat spoiled and a little rebellious. In the process of being uprooted from her home and friends during the move to a strange new town, her parents lose their way and the family winds up at what they believe to be an abandoned theme park (did Disney really support this?). The park turns out to be more than meets the eye, however, and is far from abandoned. After eating some food that does not belong to them, her parents are transformed into pigs and Chihiro discovers the true population and purpose of the park, really an elaborate spa and resort for monsters, ghosts, gods, and all manner of strange creatures. Befriended by a boy her own age who works there, Chihiro is at first hidden away, but soon takes a job at the bath house in order to avoid expulsion until she can find a way to get her parents back. Her adventures there are, suffice it to say, quite extraordinary.

Borrowing thematic elements from a number of classic children's stories including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Cinderella, and The Wizard of Oz, Miyazaki nonetheless manages to combine them with his own peculiar vision into the makings of a modern fairy tale capable of enchanting both children and their parents. Almost every shot in the movie is filled to the brim with all sorts of fantastical sights, magical transformations, and wonderful weirdness that defies description. The workings of the spirit world follow a child's logic, governed by strange rules that make sense within the moment they are dreamed up (if you hold your breath when crossing the bridge, no one can see you). And although the story, like most fairy tales, has some potentially darker, even nightmarish overtones (including the loss of parents) that may not be appropriate for younger children, the genius of the film is that there are no real villains here. The monsters are not evil; even the antagonists of the story turn out to have special charms that make them endearing. Miyazaki displays an affection for all of his characters, and the story is rooted in a very complex understanding of each person's place in the world. The film is not a nightmare; it is a parable for growing up and self reliance. Only by learning to think for herself and use initiative can Chihiro rescue her family and return to the normal world, now prepared for any adventure that comes her way (even, dare we say it, the traumas of adolescence).

Like Miyazaki's previous film, the much-heralded but little seen (in the United States, anyway) Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away is essentially a simple story told with restraint and elegance, filtered through a distinctly Japanese sensibility. It may seem a little "foreign" to some audiences for whom animation usually begins and ends with the traditional Disney fare, but it embodies all of those values that parents should encourage in their children, and all of the vision that anyone who loves great filmmaking should respect and admire.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The packaging claims that Spirited Away is presented in a 2.0:1 aspect ratio. That seems like an odd ratio to draw an animated feature in, since basically there are few theaters in the world that would project the movie properly if that were the case. The image on disc actually looks more like 1.85:1 with a significant amount of windowboxing. The black bars on the sides of the picture may or may not be visible depending on your television's degree of overscan.

The movie was released on DVD in Asia several months before us here in the United States, and at the time was the subject of many complaints about the film-to-video transfer suffering from a severe red push. In response to this, the Japanese distributor made a ridiculous claim that the red push was intentional so that the movie would look better on plasma TV displays. If a plasma TV is not capable of displaying the movie with a correct NTSC color scale, that is the TV's problem and not something the telecine operator should try to fix on his own. Thankfully, Disney listened to the complaints and had a new transfer done for this Region 1 DVD, which has natural colors and "flesh" tones that look accurate throughout.

The anamorphically enhanced picture is sharp but not burdened by distracting edge enhancement. The film has a subtle color palette that is well reproduced on disc, making for a vividly detailed but not garish image.

Like Miramax's DVD release for Princess Mononoke, the Spirited Away DVD features an unadvertised but very welcome surprise in the availability of the movie's original Japanese screen credits. However, on this disc they are more difficult to access. Only by starting the movie, returning to the menu to select the Japanese language option, and then going back to the movie will they appear. Otherwise, if you were to simply choose your language option from the menu without first starting the movie, you would get the English credits no matter which language you selected. Fortunately, jumping to the menu during the video introduction also seems to work, making this less disruptive to watching the movie itself.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The movie's original Japanese-language soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. Or, for children and other viewers unable or just plain too stubborn to read subtitles while watching a movie, there is also an English dub in Dolby Digital 5.1. The dub was prepared by Disney and Pixar veterans Kirk Wise and John Lasseter, both Miyazaki fans, and is better than most dub jobs I've endured. But would it really be too much to ask that obviously Japanese characters be given at least vaguely appropriate accents? Daveigh Chase is a fairly talented young actress, but she's even less convincingly Japanese than she was Hawaiian for Lilo & Stitch. Personally, I find it a little creepy to hear foreign characters speaking in American accents. Were there really no Asian voice actors available in all of Hollywood?

Both soundtrack options are crisp and clean, with a subdued rather than bombastic soundstage presence. Although encoded for discrete 5.1, the surround channel tends to be reserved for music and ambiance. Most of the directional effects are produced in equal amplitude to both rear speakers, so if you have Surround EX- capable equipment you may want to disable the matrixing for the center back channel or most of the surround activity will collapse toward it.

A French dub track has also been provided in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Optional English subtitles or English captions for the hearing impaired are available, along with true English closed captioning.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Although at first glance it looks like Disney has gone all out with a 2-disc set for Spirited Away, it soon becomes all too obvious that the bonus features provided are mostly junk and are unworthy of the space they take up.

Disc 1 starts, as usual for Disney, with annoying trailers that play before you even get to the menu. At least in this case they are somewhat relevant, being for the two other Miyazaki films to be released on the same day as this disc. When you start the movie, a 1-minute Introduction by John Lasseter plays to tell you just how super the movie you're about to watch is, giving American viewers a reassuring Caucasian face before leading them into the crazy Japanese stuff that follows. It is entirely useless and potentially insulting.

After the movie, on the first disc's supplement section you can choose to rewatch the introduction if you really want to, or view a 15-minute promotional featurette called The Art of Spirited Away. Mostly a celebration of the English dub done for the movie, this is bad, bad, very bad cheese, terribly written and awkwardly executed. Finally on this disc there is an official section for trailers, featuring the same two that play before the menu as well as a few other random Disney releases.

Disc 2 begins with the 5-minute Behind the Microphone featurette, showcasing the work done at the English ADR sessions. Oh how very proud everyone at Disney is of this English dub, they keep telling us over and over. This is another piece of purely promotional fluff, attempting to dazzle us with some celebrity faces (Oh my gosh, it's Suzanne Pleshette! Golly gee wowsers!). After this is a 10-minute section of Select Storyboard to Screen Comparisons, presenting footage from the movie and its storyboard counterpart as alternate angles that you can toggle between. Are there really viewers out there, other than professional storyboard artists, who like to watch this sort of thing? As far as I'm concerned, the inclusion of storyboards in any DVD's supplement is usually a sign of desperation.

The Original Japanese Trailers (with optional English subtitles) run for almost a solid half-hour. Some of these are ridiculously long, spelling out the movie's entire plot. They are very repetitive and I defy anyone to make it to the end of this section without fast-forwarding or leaving the room and coming back towards the end.

The only supplement of any substance on either disc is the 41-minute Nippon Television Special. Originally aired on Japanese TV (here with optional English subtitles), this making-of program is also promotional in nature but is nonetheless filled with an enormous amount of information about film production at Studio Ghibli, from Miyazaki's working relationship with his staff to the stresses of meeting an impending release date. This piece is very informative in ways that the other supplements are not, and is the only one I would ever choose to rewatch.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

A custom Disney interface with a web link to their official site is the only ROM supplement included.

Parting Thoughts