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Spirited Away is a magical journey that is, as many
have pointed out, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Though
its not nearly as clever as Alice, its almost superior in an important
way – instead of solving problems with her mind, Chihiro
solves problems with her heart.
Chiriro, who seams to be about the same age as Alice, suddenly
finds herself in a strange spirit world when she gets lost in
an abandoned amusement park. Her parents have been turned into
pigs and Chihiro struggles to keep hidden while she tries to find
a way to turn them back into humans again. On her way she is helped
by a boy named Haku and a servant girl called Lin. The particular
part of the spirit world she falls upon happens to be a bath house
for spirits to cleanse themselves and is led by a giant, bird-faced,
cranky old lady. The world is also filled with all sorts of creatures
and monsters of a variety of shapes and colors.
The most striking thing about this world, however, is how terribly
poor everyone treats each other, especially how they treat Chihiro.
Almost everyone she meets is rough and rude, while many others
characters appear to be downright evil. Yet Chihiro treats them
all the same, with constant love and kindness. In a world where
none of the laws of nature apply, the laws of love remain and
allow for Chihiro’s success. Whether ugly, rude or scary,
Chihiro sees the good in everyone around her and breaks down barriers
with her heart.
This theme is complimented with constantly bright colors and handsomely
drawn animation. I’m not normally a big fan of Japanese
animation, but it works well here. I also generally prefer subtitle
to dubbing, but it is really done well in this dubbed version,
it’s hardly noticeable that it’s been dubbed at all.
Most significantly, Spirited Away really does spirit
us away to a magical world. A world that’s dazzling but
scary, light but full of darkened hearts; it’s a world where
the love of a single girl is bright enough to light the sky and
lighten our hearts as well.
Japanese
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