Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki is not a mere children’s movie, but an amazing story by one of the world’s greatest directors (who only does animated movies). Miyazaki’s movies are universally loved around the world, but are generally unknown and poorly attended in the USA. Spirited Away made $274 million worldwide at the box office, but only $10 million of that was in the USA. But the Academy Awards gave Spirited Away the Oscar for Best Animated Movie and it was well deserved.

Chihiro is unhappily moving with her family. She’s a sullen 10 year old who is obviously unhappy about being forced to move away from her friends. While they are trying to find the new house, they run into what looks like an abandoned fair, but there is fresh food out. Chihiro begs her parents to leave, but they keep eating the food and soon turn into pigs. Chihiro is helped by a boy named Haku with certain magical powers, but waits too long and is trapped in a ghostly bathhouse.

The bathhouse is run by a mean witch named Yubaba. Yubba steals part of Chihiro’s name and dubs her Sen. Sen is then forced to work at the bathhouse cleaning off dirty spirits. But Sen, ever curious, end up on an adventure with Haku, Yubba’s nicer sister Zeniba and Yubba’s gigantic baby Boh. Sen manages to work the odds in her favor and ends up in a contest with Yubba for her (and her parent’s) lives.

The story is wonderful and charming. The hero is a 10 year old girl who helps out people and helps control her own destiny. She is no pretty princess waiting for a prince to arrive. The animation is mostly hand-drawn with some computer aided effects and is amazing. The drawings are purposely simple and serve the story, with few obviously show pieces. Spirited Away is a movie children and adults will love. Highly recommended.