Studio Ghibli: Spirited Away

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An nyeoung

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Ni hao

A few weeks a go I did a post about the first ever Studio Ghibli film that I'd watched, which was Howl's Moving Castle, so today I thought we'd revisit Studio Ghibli and talk about the second film of theirs I watched and if I'm not mistaken it's one of their most famous animations: Spirited Away.

Spirited Away was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki based the film on one of his friend's 10 year old daughter who would visit his home every summer, realising that the film would be 3 hours long Miyazaki cut several parts out of the story, with a budget of $19million, production started on Spirited Away in 2000. The film was released 20th July, 2001, and became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing $330million worldwide and receiving widespread critical acclaim. Spirited Away overtook Titanic which was the top grossing film at the time in the Japanese box office and became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. Spirited Away tends to rank among the greatest animated films.

Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a to year old girl, that while moving house enters the spirit world, after her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse in the hopes to return herself and her parents back to the human world. Along the way Chihiro makes some new friends: Haku and No-Face who she helps throughout her story.

A remarkable fantasy adventure film quite unlike any other, Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro, a headstrong 10-year-old girl, unhappy that her family are moving house and that she will have to make new friends.

As they make their way to their new home, Chihiro's father takes a detour to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what seems to be a deserted theme park but is in fact a ghostly town. Unwittingly, they have strayed into the land of the spirits, a world of dreamlike scenery inhabited by ancient gods and magical beings, ruled over by the sorceress, Yubaba. With her parents held captive and Yubaba set on enslaving them forever, Chihiro must use all her energy to survive in this strange new place. With the help of Haku, a brave young spirit, she is forced to overcome her fears and join an epic battle for her family's freedom.

Winner of the 2003 Oscar for Best Animated Film and the Golden Bear at Berlin, Spirited Away is a visionary work from Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke), which sets the benchmark for all animation to come. The most successful film of all time in it's native Japan, it's a thrilling and enchanting adventure for adults and children alike.

There is a reason this is a successful animation, everything about it is breath taking with all the characters being lovable and if I was Chihiro I would miss the friends I made while in the spirit world and often wonder if she ever does. No matter your age this is an animation to really sink your teeth into, like me this was Skye's second Studio Ghibli film too and she loved it from the first moment she watched it, she loved it so much I had to steal my own DVD back off her, maybe I should buy it her for Christmas. I think this film is one of those films that even if your not a fan of Japanese animations you will have heard of Spirited Away.

One of the things I never knew about this film was that Disney won the rights to dub the film into English under the supervision of the Pixar animator John Lasseter, with the English script wrote to match the characters original Japanese-language lip movements.

(By Enspirion) 

The soundtrack is also beautiful and I'd be surprised with any Studio Ghibli fan that when the music for Spirited Away is played to no recognise it and get a rush of emotions and images from the story in their head.

(By WebVL188)

If you haven't seen the film then please check out the trailer below and hopefully it will wet your appetite and enjoy it.

Well what are you waiting for?
Prepare to be Spirited Away!

See you soon! 

An nyeoung 
Sayonara 
Zai Jian 
Bye