Spirited Away was the first Miyazaki movie that I loved. I got it for my kids (the usual excuse for getting animated movies I want to see, but I think my wife is catching on) and was surprised how much they loved it as well. It’s an exciting and scary movie about a young girl and is filled with monsters and ghosts. But, at it’s heart, it’s about a young girl trying to find her way in the world without her parents. So, let’s go follow Chihiro/Sen and her adventures.

Chihiro is a pre-teen girl who is moving to a new town with her parents. She’s very unhappy about it since it meant leaving her friends. While driving, her father becomes lost and the family ends up at a dead end that opens to an abandoned amusement park. Her parents sit down to eat some food that is surprisingly still there and Chihiro looks on in horror as her parents slowly transform into pigs. Running away, she comes across Haku who tells her to run away. She is unable to run away in time, so Haku takes her to a large bathhouse for spirits and ghosts. Haku tells her she needs to get a job here or she’ll be in danger. So Chihiro, by way of the boiler room attendant Kamaji, goes to see the controller of the bathhouse, Yubba. Yubba agrees to give Chihiro a job at the bathouse, but binds her by taking the first part of her name, so Chihiro is now Sen (it makes much more sense in Japanese).

Sen is then brought to work in the bathouse, cleaning and helping out ghosts and monsters. She gets into trouble with a ghost named No Face and accidentally lets No Face into the bathhouse. But she makes up for it by getting No Face out and helping rescue people he had eaten. When she realizes that Haku can transform into a dragon and that there is a mystery with Haku, Yubba and Yubba’s twin sister Zeniba. To help rescue Haku from an attack he suffered, Sen goes with No Face to visit Zeniba and come back to save her parents.

The movie is an interesting dark children’s movie. The animation, as always, is wonderful and the colors and setting add a lot to the movie. There are some wonderful bits with the giant (and I do mean giant) baby and the three bouncing heads. The character progression showing Sen grow and mature during her time in the bathhouse is the center of the film with a good mix of action and comedy with some scary scenes (especially for younger viewers) mixed in. Overall it’s a wonderful film that everyone could love. Highly Recommended.