Spirited Away is the newest animated film by Miyazaki, and while it seems to address the difficulties Mononoke faced in terms of accessibility, it will probably still fly well over the heads of US movie-goers, if not even more so than its predecessor.

The irony is pretty strong here: At its core, Spirited Away is a western fairy tale (actually, it has been widely compared to Alice in Wonderland, but I think that example is too specific to actually capture the more traditional references present in the film) and in its content there is nothing to offend younger viewers--no one gets decapitated, no forest gods spill gallons of blood, in fact, there is really no violence whatsoever. Miyazaki himself declared that he did not ever want to make another Mononoke, but rather films that could be enjoyed by younger viewers. Yet despite all of that, its potential alienation factor is a lot higher than what you'd expect from such a nice, light-hearted film.

I was having a conversation with a house-mate of mine, and he said something to the effect that Totoro (an earlier Miyazaki film) was in truth a very strange film. I countered him by saying that Totoro was not so much a strange film, but that as movie goers, we've become so used to a standard form of plot progression that Totoro seems weird. I think we've actually become very strange, inflexible movie-goers. Totoro is in a lot of ways pretty traditional children's fare, albeit old-school children's fare. In the same manner, Spirited Away seems to be very traditional, but we've become unfamiliar with it--the ending to Spirited Away may seem completely anti-climactic but the more you consider it, the more you realize how well that precise ending has been established in the body of western fairy-tales.

Of course, Spirited Away has plenty of other oddities to leave people scratching their heads--visually it is the most creative thing to come out of Ghibli (but shouldn't the progress of a girl to save her parents from witches be filled with lush, bizarre imagery?) And of course, the witch in question is less of a witch and more of a bad-ass manager, a bath house manager at that. OK, yes, the film is about a witch that runs a bath house for visiting gods. Sure it's strange, but we should have expected some kind of an eastern twist along the way. If Ghibli just started making Disney films (even good Disney films) there wouldn't be much of a point in watching them anymore. There's also a nice Night on the Galactic Railroad vibe going in a later part of the film.

In the end, Spirited Away (which I loved by the way) ends up combining some of the most original ideas I've seen in the history of animated films, with some of the most traditional story telling techniques in western literature. It ought to be wholly enjoyable to US audiences, but ultimately I suspect Spirited Away will receive far more in the way of head scratching and blank stares than Mononoke ever accomplished. Throw this together with a non-existent release and distribution scheme by Disney that somehow involves a theatrical run on the 20th of September and you have an outright disaster on your hands. There's no advertisement for this, no web page, no press whatsoever. Unlike Mononoke, Spiritied Away seems likely to die without even a whimper.

If you're not completely confused yet, here is the score card as things stand:

-Disney said upon the VHS release of Kiki's (1998) that Castle in the Sky would be released shortly, it still hasn't.

-Princess Mononoke is brought to theatres, sort of. Grosses around 2 million dollars with virtually no advertising or distribution. Note that even the worst films can bring in more money than this with some OK distribution. People do randomly go to see films--even Eight Legged Freaks made more money than this.

-Disney publicly announces they want nothing to do with Ghibli because of economic failure in theatres.

-Disney says they love Ghibli and will release Spirited Away in theatres (this statement appears only after Dreamworks expresses interest in Spirited Away).

-Disney has done English voice-overs for both Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky--maybe they are waiting for Japanese DVD release of Castle in the Sky?

-A little over a month away, and it is still unclear if Spirited Away is getting a theatrical or direct to video release.

-Ghibli tribute appears in Lilo and Stitch (Kiki's coffee shop).

Yeah, I don't get it, so instead of bothering with Disney, I just picked up the region 2 DVD. It is expensive, but extremely beautiful. The preview clips of Mononoke look far superior to the region 1 version of Mononoke. Ghibli continues to make incredibly creative and highly entertaining films with deep messages and gorgeous imagery, even if they aren't always US viewer friendly. Perhaps the most ironic tidbit is that there isn't a single image in this film that's as weird as Dumbo's Pink Elephant sequence--but then again, many Amazon reviewers have noted that Dumbo is just too intense and sad for young viewers. Blah!

Go see Spirited Away by whatever means you need to, it is well worth whatever you have to spend. The political themes have been substantially toned down from previous films (they're nearly subliminal this time 'round), and visually he's out done himself. Spirited Away, though not my all-time favorite film by Ghibli, is such a startling artistic accomplishment that it should be required viewing in future film and animation classes. Really, this is an instant classic.

Thanks for the anger there Chris! If you would like to submit a review drop me a line at gleep9@hotmail.com. Head on out of here to either the Third Movie or Main page.