fumanstan

And i certainly enjoyed it quite a bit, although i wouldn't consider it one of the best films made, nor even one of the best animated films ever made. Nonetheless, there were quite a few aspects that i loved and many creatures that i thought were adorable. But i was wondering a few things....

First, if i enjoyed this would i enjoy Castle in the Sky or Kiki's Deliivery Service? Princess Mononoke was pretty good too, and since there's that 2 dollar off coupon i was wondering if i should take a shot at the others.

Second... is it just me, or is the film given a lot more leniency as far as plot goes because its an anime movie? While watching it, i was surprised at how little of the movie is explained in detail. I never understood what the deal was with There were a few other things that i wanted to know more about but just wasn't explained. Of course, it was made for children so i suppose it isn't too big of a deal, just iresome. Anyway, time to search through some old threads

kevin75

i have seen this movie a couple of times and IIRC, many of your questions could be answered by understanding more of japanese culture and thier relationship to nature. not that this is your fault, just saying that that aspect of the film (and miyazaki's others too), tends to lose a bit in the translation.

cultshock

An understanding of Japanese culture and beliefs are important to fully appreciate this film (and some of Miyazaki's others). But it still has much to offer Western audiences.

Castle in the Sky and Kiki are a little more straight forward, so I would give them a shot.

ulanshad

I'd say there's a good chance that you might like them more. I did, at least.

tonyc3742

I agree--I liked Kiki's a lot more [haven't seen Castle yet though.]
Admittedly, a lot of that is because I am not very educated on Japanese legend/lore/myth, from which, I presume, a lot of the magical characters in SA were taken from. Kiki's had a more universal theme, and I felt the characters were better fleshed out.

Is it just me, or is that guy who did the 'introduction' incredibly annoying and smarmy?

cultshock

Yeah, I could have done without Pixar-boy's intros. I guess it was for people just being introduced to Miyazaki/anime, but if you're familiar with the stuff, he is annoying to listen to.

Revoltor

Glad you understand how overrated Japanese cartoons can be.

eedoon

Spirited Away is not overrated. And fumanstan, I'm sure you'll like Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky. While I loved Spirited Away best, but those other anime still a great piece.

DVD Smurf

This is IMHO a brilliant film...it must be seen in its full context...

Cheers ,

DVD SMURF

Tuan Jim

Is that "intro" thing just on the US DVD? I don't recall seeing that anywhere else -- maybe because I only watched the Japanese R2 dvd subbed. What's the deal exactly?

tonyc3742

I think it was only on the US/R1 version; of at least Kiki and SA. It was an optional feature, but also automatically played either before starting the feature, or when first putting the disk in.
It's one of the guys from Pixar, I forget his name, saying stuff like 'You are so lucky--You get to watch Spirited Away' and then gushing about it. Which is fine, but his style was annoying, and the fact that it automatically came on.
Revoltor: That same sentence can be totally accurate by changing 'Japanese cartoons' to 'Jim Carrey movies' or 'Criterion films' or 'Hollywood sequels' or almost anything. For some reason, every couple of years a certain anime title gets the internet fan press as 'the new hot thing' [Akira, Princess Mononoke, SA], and gets a lot of publicity, and very few people say anything bad about it. Till the next one hits. Much like here in the US, with US films. [for instance: I despised The Royal Tenenbaums, but I am apparently vastly in the minority]. I don't necessarily mind, it can expose people into anime, and there's a whole lot more anime out there, of all styles, for people to discover. Some of it, yes, is not very good--much like 90% of the stuff Hollywood churns out, or can be found at Blockbuster, is not very good. Sturgeon's Law, I think that was.

Numanoid

I regret playing this movie for my wife (who is Japanese). Ever since we watched it, she refers to me as "Bou-chan" (the giant baby).



I swear, I barely resemble him.

Hiro11

I agree that us westerners are probably missing a lot of the themes underneath the surface in Spirited Away. There's a lot of stuff in there about Japan's decades of stag-flation, Japan's modernization and its changing relationship with Shintoism, materialism and nature that probably resonates deeply with Japanese people, but we miss completely. It doesn't really matter to me, I still love it. It is my favorite movie from last year. It's the one movie my two-year-old wants to watch constantly that never gets old or repetitive.

If you like Spirited Away, I highly recommend Totoro which is very similar in quality, tone and content. The current disc is an insulting P+S crapfest, wait for the proper Disney rerelease.

entitee

this movie really taps into the imagination of a child. i love it.

Jepthah

I can't understand that type of complaint, about things in a film like this not 'making sense.'

Spirited Away is quite obviously in the mode of a parable, a fairy tale or ghost story. In stories like that you don't constantly ask that everything be 'explained' to you like some theorem. Things just are a certain way, characters are sometimes surprised and counfounded and big revelations happen quickly. I think it tells a lot about our 'adult' minds that we can't just relax and surrender to a film like this.

Darren Garrison

If Spirited Away confused you, maybe you need to skip Miyazaki's magical-morphing-racoon-balls movie. Although the parade sequence is possibly the best segment of animation I've ever seen.

Jay G.

The intros are only on the R1 DVDs of the Miyazaki films, they play before the feature, although you can skip them. The person who gives the intro is Pixar's John Lasseter, director of the Toy Story films and A Bug's Life, and producer of the English dub for Spirited Away. He is also a huge Miyazaki fan. However, I found the intros to be fairly pointless and annoying as well, they seem to be there as a sort of buffer, making sure people realize that these films are not your typical Disney releases.

As far as certain aspects of the film going unexplained, that seems fairly consistent with the children's fairy tale story it's telling. Alice in Wonderland has similarly odd and unexplained events and characters.

Finally, the magical-morphing-racoon-balls movie is called Pom Poko, and it is not a Miyazaki film. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, who is most famous for Grave of the Fireflies. It is a Ghibli film though, which is the studio that Miyazaki founded, and Miyazaki was the executive producer for Pom Poko

For lots more info on Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, check out the very informative link below:
http://www.nausicaa.net/

fumanstan

It wasn't so much that it was confusing, just that i felt like several main characters could have been fleshed out more or at least explained better.

nice_skis

Think of the story of this film as poetry not as a novel. The characters didn't need to be explaied further because what you see them doing is the only purpose of their presence in the film. They are poetic images or symbols not characters from a sitcom with a little background story so everyone can relate to them in an easy way.

The only way to fully appreciate a film like Spirited away is not to turn every stone in search of an answer. It is to let yourself go with the flow of this beautiful tale and feel every moment of it.