The ultimate masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki, "Spirited away" is costantly regarded as a milestone of animated cinema, the movie that alone could reveal to the world the wonders and the artistic significance of the otherwise little known "anime". This movie reveals itself to be as fascinating and mesmerizing as a Shinto Alice in wonderland: Chihiro, a 10 years old girl, umbratile and intelligent, is travelling with her parents through the forest only to get lost and to get to the gate of a misterious town, apparently abandoned. As her parents are pigging out on the pantagruelic meal found on a market stall and are eventually changed into pigs themselves, Chihiro enters an otherworldly, extravagant land governed by the dispotic witch Yubaba, where the monstrous, the charming, the misterious and the wonderful are mixed together. Forced to work as a humble maid in an incredible, fantastic spa, she will eventually manage to save herself and her selfish and materialistic parents from their sad fate.
This film is so extraordinary and sophisticated in its poetic imagery, its literary qualities, its cinematograhic virtues, you often forget you are watching a "simple" animated movie. "Spirited away" is a thrilling, engaging fairy tale, suitable to any age, with no flaws, no verbosity, no sappiness. Its most charming particolarity is the richness of ideas and concepts, of well rounded characters, of a scenery and a "choreography" remarkably effective from both a cromatic and a musical point of view.
Furthermore, when you realise it cost only 19 million dollars (5 times less than a Disney movie), the Golden Bear and the Academy Award for the Best Animated Film in 2002 appear to be even more remarkable.