HTF REVIEW: Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[James_M]

I found Spirited Away to be overrated as well. Kiki's Delivery Service is much better I think. Let's see the HTF review of Castle in the Sky too. I think Nausicaa is among Miyazaki's best (even though the music's kind of 80's). I found Porco Rosso to be Miyazaki's most well rounded.

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind. As far as I'm concerned Nausicaa is Miyazaki's best film. Porco Rosso is excellent as well, but Nausicaa is still tops in my book. Spirited Away looks fantastic, but it is going to be hard pressed knocking Nausicaa off the pedestal.

 

[TheLongshot]

Is the love of this film based truly on merit, or is it heralded because of the apparent legendary status of Miyazaki?

That's actually a good question. I too don't think it is one of his best films. That being said, it is probably better than anything shown last year, including Lilo & Stitch. Even with lesser efforts, he is still pretty damn good. The fact that there are moments of magic in this film is proof of that.

Jason

 

[Cliff C]

Hi, I was wondering how come the movie looks windowboxed?

Is this done to compensate for overscan?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes. Most if not all Japanese transfers are slightly windowboxed to kill overscan

 

[Mark Fontana]

POST REMOVED

 

[Ted Lee]

what's windowboxing?

 

[Brook K]

Glad to see you enjoying these films so much Ron. I'm anxiously awaiting next Tuesday since there were also technical or price issues that have kept me from getting the alternate region versions.

Spirited Away isn't Miyazaki's best, for me that would be My Neighbor Totoro, but it was still one of my 2 or 3 favorite films of last year.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I also loved Spirited Away. So I guess the rerelease didn't result in a DVD push back after all?

 

[CoreyII]

Unlike some of the opinions that I've read over the years concerning animation Im not going to knock computer animation its just the new kid on the block.

Traditional animation(hand drawn or cel animation) and computer animation each have their place.

Having said that Im willing to go on a little faith and give Spirited Away a try. Personally I didn't care much for Princess Mononoke so I wasn't too eager to see this latest creation from Miyazaki. Personally I much prefer Hellsing or Cowboy Bebop. My two cents.

 

[Dave Barth]

Ron, great review. I didn't find Princess Mononoke as great as the hype had made it out to be, but I may now rent this and/or Kiki due to your reviews.

Now, pardon me for digressing into a nitpick:

Although it is my policy to always watch foreign
film in their original language, I made an exception
here.

You might consider replacing the "always" with a "normally" or "usually", or strike it entirely. Since in the same sentence you state it as an absolute policy, you admit you don't follow it absolutely (!)

 

[Paul_Scott]

really disappointed to see this doesn't sport a commentary track.
i saw the film last fall with a friend who will be proposing to a Japanese girl soon and eventually moving over there.
he's working hard studying the language, and knows quite a bit about the culture.
he didn't really tell me much about it before we saw it (he'd already seen it in japan), and we didn't talk while we watched it.
i thought it was fairly interesting, beautiful to look at, but long and somewhat frustrating.
to me, it was like a version of Alice in Wonderland, where things are presented just for nonsensical reasons.

it wasn't until we were discussing it afterwards that he told me about the culture of the bath houses, the japanese view of spirits, the etiquette of introductions, and on and on.

all of a sudden i reflected on the film in a whole new light.
a lot of the settings, events, circumstances, character actions seemed arbitrary to me without this information.

a commentary track that had gone into this kind of culture specific information at the appropriate scenes would have helped enormously, imo.
shame they didn't have the forethought to put one on there.
(how much would they have had o pay a professor of japanese studies w/ a decent speaking voice to do this? not much i'm thinking)

 

[Steve_Ch]

CoreyII, I don't know if you've seen Metropolis, if you haven't, it may be of interest, as it uses a combination of cel animation overlay on computer animation. The bonus material is interesting, as the creators talked at length about the hybrid.

 

[Josh Dial]

I can't wait to own this movie, as I missed it in the theatre. I loved Tonari no Totoro, and I'm sure i'll love this one.

cheers!

Josh

 

[CoreyII]

Hey Steven_Ch I have seen Metropolis in video stores, but I never thought about watching it. After reading your statement I might give it a chance but it will be a while the film isn't on my priority list at the moment.

The next anime I''ll check out will either be Beserk or Neon Genesis Evangelion. I've heard many good things about both of these series. By the way I just picked up the Hellsing Boxset on Thursday 4/11/03. Today I picked up Spriggan on a whim and so far I have really enjoyed the first forty or so minutes of it. I didn' t completely watch it because I had some other engagements.

From reading these post on Spirited Away, it seems as if there is an anti-American animation attitude. I don't about any of you people but I would trade all of Miyazaki's films for all of the Simpsons, Looney Tunes,
Max Fleischer Popeye, or the Batman Animated Series complete episodes on DVD.

Speaking of complete episodes on DVD, hey Ron I don't know if you'll ever read this since its so late in the Spirited Away forum but I was wondering if you'll ever do any reviews on anime box sets like Hellsing or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Just wondering.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Corey, for reviews of that nature check http://www.animeondvd.com

 

[TheLongshot]

I don't about any of you people but I would trade all of Miyazaki's films for all of the Simpsons, Looney Tunes, Max Fleischer Popeye, or the Batman Animated Series complete episodes on DVD.

Ah, but those aren't feature films, tho I can't argue with the desire for Looney Tunes (tho I can see them anytime I want on CN).

Jason

 

[PaulP]

Mostly an anti-Disney attitude, actually.

And what is actually wrong with Disney feature animated films, in your opinion? I have lots of them, and consider them all classics. But then I'm a fan of animation in general.

 

[Robert Montoya]

sounds like a blind purchase.

 

[Rob Willey]

When I bought my new plasma three or four months back, this is the film I was thinking about. Thinking about how glorious it was going to look in my HT. And it didn't disappoint. WOW!!

Now that I've had a chance to watch the movie a couple of times, I've come to really prefer the original Japanese audio with subtitles to the English dub.

The framing is a little odd though. It is windowboxed on all four sides (apparently to compensate for overscan), but the resulting image is pretty close to 16:9. The box lists the AR as 2.0:1, so I'm a little confused.

Anyway, highly recommended!

Rob