Spirited Away is the first anime film I truly was blown away by. I'm not a big animation fan though I do like Pixars and studio Ghibli.
This is the last movie on the countdown that I've seen and loved, so it's the last time I'll post my reviews. I believe I had some interesting things to say about
Spirited Away so hopefully somebody will take the time to read this:
Spirited Away(Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
Spirited Away is so richly detailed with wonderfully interesting spirit characters. The story both written and directed by
Miyazaki excels in 'world building' much like Ridley Scott did in Blade Runner. We're treated to a uniquely different world with its on set of rules and traditions. And we're showing many aspects of that world, from deep in the ground where coal is stoked into the fires by little dust creatures to the upper world of the bath house with it's own characters and ways of doing things.
The bath house was immense like some castle labyrinth, I want to go there! Each room had it's own interesting design. Every time we enter a new room there's something fascinating to see. In some ways this reminded me of the
Alice in Wonderland, stories with a new adventure at every turn!
I loved that the animators understood the relationship between lighting and color gradients. Much care was given to making the film look real and three dimensional. I was impressed that cinematography camera angles were used. We get low angle and overhand shots, fly by shots and more. Just like a well made live action film,
Spirited Away has amazing cinematography, lighting and sets.