Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 4 ratings
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes 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 her family.
Spirited Away is one of the most visually inventive and imaginatively conceived animated films ever made. Its world-building is extraordinary — the bathhouse for spirits, the parade of youkai, the layered Japanese mythology — all rendered with Miyazaki's signature hand-drawn artistry that remains breathtaking. The plot is a wonderfully strange, episodic journey that defies conventional story structure, trusting atmosphere and emotional truth over tidy narrative mechanics, which is both its strength and a mild weakness — the resolution feels slightly abrupt and emotionally understated compared to the richness of what preceded it. The voice performances (in both Japanese and English dubs) are solid and well-cast but not particularly standout in the way live-action acting can be. Novelty is genuinely exceptional: no other film feels quite like this — its tone, imagery, and logic are completely singular. A landmark of world cinema.