SPIRITED AWAY

Spirited Away is a magnificent achievement by Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a gorgeous-looking piece of filmmaking that evokes recollections of everything from Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz to Yellow Submarine and the classic children's novel Where the Wild Things Are.

This immediate classic, about a young girl forced to labor in a bathhouse that caters to spirits, takes great joy in defying spectator expectations every step of the way, with scenes more appropriate to a hallucinogenic dream than a cinema screen. Only the Cantina in Star Wars can perhaps rival this film's bathhouse in terms of the sheer amount of strange animals wandering around. The plot of Spirited Away (also Sen and the Mysterious Disappearance of Chihiro in one of its Japanese adaptations) is based on concepts that may be found in a variety of timeless stories, such as honor, sacrifice, responsibility, and respect.

Spirited Away was released in Japan in 2001 and was taken up by Disney for an American release in 2002. The studio mishandled its nationwide release, focusing instead on marketing domestic mediocrities like The Country Bears, Treasure Planet, and The Santa Clause 2. However, it eclipsed Titanic as Japan's highest-grossing picture in 1997, a record that has yet to be surpassed 15 years later. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was almost certainly frosting on the cake.

Detailed information:

Release date: Jul 20, 2001 (Japan)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Estimated budget: $19 million
Music by: Joe Hisaishi

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429