“Spirited Away” link on Rotten Tomatoes. I’d heard so much about this movie, I expected to be blown away, or at least to be wildly entertained. I was not. It was marginally enteraining, but mostly it was silly, with silly things happening for silly (or no) reason. Yes, it was a kid’s movie, but the buzz I recall was all about it being such a great movie, not a great kid’s movie. The background animation and attention to detail was phenomenal; the actual characters I found were mostly unpleasant to look at, though.
So, did I miss something? Was there something I’m not getting that makes this movie worth the 97% rating it has on Rotten Tomatoes?
I watched it when it came out and found that it had some good moments but in general I remember thinking it seemed kind of unnecessarily weird and too long. I actually saw it before all the Oscar hype so I’ve been meaning to go back and watch it again to see what I missed.
I think it’s something that either you get, or you don’t. Miyazaki movies are mostly about whimsical things happening with their own internal logic–think Alice in Wonderland. Maybe that’s just not your taste. Spirited Away is generally viewed as being the best of his works, and I would agree with that assessment. I’m curious if you’ve seen other movies he directed (Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc.) and what you thought of them.
That’s not true. I’ve see them all and find them all pretty mediocre, with Spirited Away down near the bottom of the list. I “get” them, and one is good enough to watch the next, but I just don’t think they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I had a similar reaction the first time I saw it. When I watched it again a year later, the details of plot weren’t as important as the details of the storytelling.
I liked the morally ambiguous creature without a face.
I liked the girl’s bravery.
I liked the “huge spa for the gods” concept.
I liked the girl giving up the charms that could rescue her parents for people who needed them immediately.
I liked how bad a lot of the “adults” were to the girl (children battling adults is a venerable theme that’s still potent.)
But, yeah, it seems that compared to American films, there was a lot of stuff that just happened.
I’ll probably watch it again soon, to see if it keeps getting better. My Neighbor Totoro didn’t impress me much the first time, but now seems like a classic.
About Rotten Tomatoes: if a movie has a lot of good points, and no serious bad points it can get a positive rating from almost all critics. Some of them might only think it’s a B- movie, but that’s good enough for a “Fresh Tomato.”
It’s interesting… a lot of people were thrilled “Spirited Away” won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, especially over Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch.” Woo hoo, the foreign movie beat out the Mouse!
I only recently saw “Lilo & Stitch” and was just blown out of the water. It’s a fantastic movie, so much better than much of the dismal Disney animated fare that preceded it (Pocahontas, ugh) that it’s hard to believe the same company made it. No big time let’s-go-for-an-Oscar original songs written by some old lame guy who used to be cool. No cute sidekicks for the hero - in this case the animal sidelick kind of IS the hero. No sugarcoating of the single parent situation - there’s a social worker who keeps coming by and you kind of see his point. No silly, stereotypical villian - there’s actually several antagonists and all have some degree of logic and justification on their side. The artwork is alternately wild and subtle, and universally terrific. It was, IMHO, utterly robbed of the Oscar, and was one of the ten best movies of 2002.
Even though I generally don’t like surreal movies, or anime, I like Spirited Away. It’s very atmospheric and has a leisurely pace to it that really affects me. I generally don’t like much of his other stuff, though I haven’t seen many.
I wasn’t that fond of Totoro, but it’s also solidly the only real ‘kiddie flick’ out of the films I’ve seen. You’re right though, there isn’t really anything that jumps out and makes you go OMG THIS MOVIE ROCKS!!!.
Cisco, eh, if you don’t like it you don’t like it. I’m fond of films that don’t seem to make any sense
Rickjay, I think part of it was that Spirited Away had extremely limited release in the US before the Oscars hit–few people had even heard of it at the time, and some of those who did had never had a chance to see it at that point. I didn’t see a single ad for it until AFTER it won the award.
I enjoy Miyazaki movies. To me, they show mythic stories from a very different frame of reference than I’m used to (coming from a Western background as I do).
So, they work for me, giving me insight into different ways of thinking and seeing things. Their dreamlike quality is a plus, too.
Hello RickJay, this is an opposing take on Lilo and Stitch.
I liked the Hawaiian music, but as soon as they introduced Stitch, I said to myself:
Okay, apparently Disney knows how tired their plot device of two seemingly incompatible characters who turn out to be best buddies has become. That’s why they’ve made Stitch really, really, really obnoxious. They’re trying to still surprise the audience when the two lead characters manage to bond.
Unfortunately, it just made the device more unbelievable and a more obvious Plot Contrivance.
The stuff with the broken home and the social worker seemed like calculated infusions of contemporary relevance.
Anyway, everybody likes different things. I think the Academy made the right call.
featherlou, if Spirited Away seemed weird and slow-paced to you, you may fare better with Princess Mononoke, which is more of a straightforward fantasy/action film (though still with environmental overtones), and whose English version has a fantastic voice cast.
Or Miyazaki may simply not be to your taste at all. My personal favorite is still Kiki’s Delivery Service, but if you didn’t like Spirited Away, I think you may find it crushingly dull.
Can you explain this to me? Maybe it’s because I’m “used to it” since I’ve liked anime and have studied Japanese culture since elementary school, but I really don’t see the difference except for a handful of obvious themes (i.e. emphasizing Buddhist or Shinto imagery over Christian). I mean, I know I couldn’t pass off as a non-westerner in Japanese culture even if I looked Japanese, but I never got an exceptionally “different from western” vibe from Miyazaki’s storytelling, or any anime for that matter as a lot of people claim to.
As for Spirited Away, I liked it, but it’s one of those movies I can’t explain why. It just… resonated with me, I can’t explain anything special about the plot or characters it’s just an inexplicable fancy. I’ve only every felt like this for the Alice books and FLCL, it’s just I like it but am not sure why.
I thought it was okay but unmemorable. I didn’t think it had much “internal logic”–a lot of it (particularly imagery and stylistic shifts) seemed pretty random. I was disappointed.
'Fraid not. I was a child of the late 50’s and early 60’s, and grew up with Mickey Mouse Club, Disney cartoons like Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, along with Bugs Bunny retelling Wagner’s Ring saga (Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit). I have no familiarity with anime, or popular modern Japanese culture (though I know a fair amount of Japanese history).
So Totoro and Spirited Away were completely different vibes for me when it came to cartoon tales. I viewed them as retelling of traditional Japanese legends/fairy tales via the medium of children’s entertainment, and found them to work on two levels (my young kids loved the things kids do about them), both of which worked for me in relatively new ways.
Maybe I’m completely off base with that, but that was my experience.
Apropos of nothing, I have a Catbus poster in my prison exam room.
There’s lot going on in the movie. A few different themes that you might not get on the first watching.
Primarily, it’s about growing up. Look at the way she’s in the back seat of the car, being driven around, with farewell flowers, at the beginning. That’s the opening sequence showing the end of her childhood. She just doesn’t realise it yet. Pretty soon she gets to watch her parents make stupid decisions, and it’s the start of her adult life - she get’s a job, takes on responsibility, learns to protect her name (reputation), etc. It’s pretty clever, I think. YMMV
Slow-paced isn’t a problem for me; I like my movies to take as much time as they need to tell the story properly; it definitely was weird, though - I think susan has hit on what was bugging me- the lack of internal logic and pointlessness. Now there’s a giant, ugly radish going up to the top of the building in the elevator - and now he’s coming back down again. It was somewhat of a big deal in the movie, but it didn’t seem to have any point.
I would instead recommend Howl’s Moving Castle. It still has plenty of whimsy and some nonsensical stuff, but it seemed to me to have a more “linear” and more structured story than either Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. (and I enjoyed both of those)
Not to answer for QtM (especially since he already answered for himself anyway), but the big difference to me is moral ambiguity and complexity of story. American stories (esp. of the kids’/animated/fantasy type) tend to be very black and white, straight forward, linear, have a moral, etc. Japanese stories (of the same type) seem to be more wandering, random, have morally “gray” characters, the good guys do a bad thing or two and the bad guys do a good thing or two, etc etc.
I meant to add: Sometimes one of these types of storytelling works better, sometimes the other. I tend to like the American ones because I grew up here, but there is lots of Anime I love as well.
