Recently, I watched Spirited Away and here is what I thought about it. Contains spoilers for Spirited Away (2001).

Spirited Away starts out introducing us to Chihiro, a childish girl that is scared of everything. Chihiro also complains about everything like her flowers dying, she is just upset that she has to move to a different town.

Small things like Chihiro grabbing her shirt makes her nervous behaviour feel all the more believable. It’s almost like someone studied children’s behaviour just to animate Chihiro.

Spirited Away just throws us into a new world without any explanation. They never tried to dumb down the movie to appeal to the younger audience, there was no exposition dump and it treats itself seriously. We just see the world the same way Chihiro does, a whole strange world, this way we can really relate with Chihiro.

Chihiro’s parents became pigs and the main goal throughout this movie became Chihiro saving her parents.

Then we met Haku, Haku saved Chihiro on the first night but the weird part is how Haku knows Chihiro’s name, which for some reasons lead to Chihiro into really trusting Haku.

I like how when we first see Kamaji we thought he was a normal human, until we see him spread his long arms and stretch it everywhere. Kamaji is this hard shell but a soft heart kind of guy as we see him help Chihiro multiple times in the movie.

The animation in this movie is fluid and this movie was made in 2001! The story is about a simple friendship between Chihiro and Haku, two people from two different worlds, this story I don’t know why, feels very meaningful. If you have not watch the movie go watch it.

The music is great, a few simple piano theme really express the sadness Chihiro goes through.

The movie also never really have a antagonist, the movie is just showing a few days living with the spirits in the bathhouse and to be honest I think it’s better this way. Every character is likeable in their own way.

Things like the wrinkles on Yubaba’s face really exaggerate how old she is or at least how powerful.

No face was really weird because he became bad in the bathhouse but outside of it he was fine and they really didn’t explain it. But Chihiro must be some sort of prodigy to figure that out.

The scene where Chihiro helped save the dirty spirit seemed very cliche, a kind of new figure does something spectacular and made her likeable kind of thing. But this film is pretty old so maybe they started the cliche?

Scenes like Chihiro figuring out Haku’s name seen really rushed since it was suppose to be an emotional part of the film where Haku actually saved Chihiro and now Chihiro is retiring the favour. But the scene still looks great.

Zeniba, Yubaba’s twin sister, is much more likeable, she is just a granny that you feel comfortable to be in. And is also in her place we get to see Pixar’s lamp.

In the end everyone loved Chihiro and supports her being free with Haku, the story ends at where it started at the entrance. Chihiro as a character became much braver than before and doesn’t feel that lonely in a new place. All the characters were likeable, the animation is great and it’s just a great adventure.

Ratings: 8/10