Spirited Away

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Producer: Toshio Suzuki

Plot: When moving to their new home Chihiro and her family end up taking a wrong turn leading themselves in an abandoned Village. Deciding to take brief walk through the village they discover a delicious feast has been prepared, Chihiro's parents decide to help themselves, but an anxious Chihiro decides to explore more of this eerie town. When crossing a bridge a she discovers a Giant Bathhouse, before she goes any further she is confronted by a young man, he tells her and her family to leave, as soon as possible, before the sun sets!

Chihiro runs to alert her parents, but they are too busy gorging on this delicious feast, eating this food has some how managed to transform Chihiro's parents into pigs! As the sun begins set the scared Chihiro suddenly discovers that this town isn't abandoned, it’s a ghost town, filled with roaming spirits.

The young man returns and offers to help her out, introducing himself as Haku, he tells her that she’ll have to stay here until they come up with a way to change her parents back. She’ll also have to stay out of sight, if the spirits catch her she’ll be in trouble.

When startled by a talking frog, Chihiro is caught, Haku tells her to find work as soon as possible before she is turned into a pig by Yubaba. Chihiro attempts to get work in the bath houses boiler room, but the multi-armed worker refuses her, with no other choice Chihiro ends up working for the grotesque Yubaba.

Yubaba is the owner of a giant bathhouse for the spirit world, displeased by the way Chihiro’s parents have ruined their feast, Yubaba gives her the job of cleaning the big tubs. Chihiro now known as Sen must now earn a living and with the help of Haku try and save her parents from becoming the main course at the next feast.

Review: This movie is possibly one of the most moving family animations there ever is. The film is amazing, it was the first Studio Ghibli film I've seen and my jaw dropped at it's touching story of a spoiled girl being thrown into this other world and having to deal with it the hard way. The music in the movie is also moving, I've held back the tears on many occasions from it's touching numbers.

It also has a fantastic set of characters in the movie; master of the boiler room - Kamaji, tough nut - Lin, that quirky Frog, River Spirit - Haku, the ghostly - No Face, twin sisters/witches Yubaba and Zubaba and of course the constantly amusing mouse and little birdy.

Of course with this amount of valued characters they need some decent voice actors to portray them! Fantastic Four star Michael Chiklis plays the role of Chihiro's father, Dumb & Dumber actress Lauren Holly portray Chihiro's mother and Chihiro is played Donnie Darko star Daveigh Chase. Also Cheers bar fly - John Ratzenberger lends his vocal talents too!

Final thoughts an amazing family film, everyone should see it, let alone own it.

Rating: 9.7 out of 10.0