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by Jennifer Alpeche Published: May 13, 2003
Disc One Disc Two Wiinner of the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, “Spirited Away” is in a word: a masterpiece. But it was in and out of theaters so fast last year that chances were very good that if asked, a person would reply “Spirited What?” to the question, “Have you seen it yet?” The Mouse House ended up re-releasing it wide after it won its Oscar -- just two weeks before it was set to arrive on DVD. Fans of animation, admirers of Miyazaki, and film lovers in general were given one more (brief) chance to see the grace of this film on the big screen. Not very much time. Most likely, people would end up seeing its beauty on DVD, and while one can say that Disney failed in promoting “Spirited Away” in theaters, the fact remains that the studio has made it possible for us to see it and to know it at all, and for that, I am ever grateful. For “Spirited Away” is a magical experience for audiences young and old. Hayao Miyazaki set out to make a film that would capture the spirit of a 10-year child, and in the process created one that touches the inner wonder in us all with its imaginative characters, heartfelt story, and strong and inspiring heroine. “Spirited Away” imparts a lesson of life through creativity and great storytelling, blending the two into a film that not only wins awards, but also hearts. The story focuses on 10-year-old Chihiro, a young, apathetic girl who when we first meet her, is very down. Her family has chosen to move away, which has taken her away from her friends and the only life she’s ever known. Her parents try to reassure her that all will be well, but she is not interested. She already misses her friends and her old life, totally unaware of the adventure that awaits her. While driving to their new home, her family takes a wrong turn and comes face-to-face with a tunnel. Dark and mysterious, it draws her parents in, and Chihiro follows, not wanting to be left behind. It turns out to lead to an abandoned amusement park, the remnants of a passing fancy for the masses. Only Chihiro can sense that something is wrong, but she and her parents are drawn further in, deeper into the center of the park. There, a transformation takes place that sets Chihiro on an adventure, a journey, one in which she must find the courage and strength within to fight for her parents, herself, and those around her, including a young, handsome boy whom she seems to have always known. The film celebrates personal triumph. Chihiro is the ultimate heroine, full of determination, but also vulnerability. She helps those around her, putting them before herself, but never forgetting her mission. She is trusting and accepts help from others, always willing to see the best in them, even when she is told different. She sees their potential and in turn, they see the light in her. Beautiful to watch, “Spirited Away” displays a wondrous pallette of color. Vibrant and realistic, each image is carefully and thoughfully drawn. Based on Old Japan, the amusement park is a wonder and the bathhouse, where much of the story takes place, is a multileveled structure that goes on and on. The water that surrounds the mythical town, full of spirits, is awesome in its endless stretch. From the shadows cast by buildings to the movements of a serpent, each detail is given its own attention. This we see with ever frame of the film. In the Nippon Television Special, we get the Japanese making-of for the film, documenting it from its original concept to its animation deadlines to the recording of sounds, music, and dialogue. Subtitled, this feature is a true treat, as we get to go inside Studio Ghibli and its animation department. Into the hub. Where the film is given life. In this special, we see Master Miyazaki at work. He is a mentor, a teacher, a cook, a director, and of course, an animator. One of the best parts of the program is seeing how Miyazaki interacts with his staff, inspiring and teaching always. With tight deadlines and little time to rest, it is clear that he does not ask any more from his staff than he expects from himself. Along with this, the Nippon special also touches on every step of the animation process, including the addition of dialogue, which is interesting to compare to the voice-acting that the English-speaking actors did for the American release -- detailed in “Behind the Microphone.” The process is a bit different, but the dedication and belief in the film is the same on both sides. The Nippon special runs approximately 42 minutes and the “Behind the Microphone” featurette is little more than 5 minutes. On Disc One, there is also a longer featurette that serves as the making-of for the English version: “The Art of Spirited Away”. This featurette is about 15 minutes and is narrated by Jason Marsden (the voice of Haku). For the most part, it takes us through the task of translating the Japanese masterpiece into English, which fell upon the shoulders of Donald and Cindy Hewitt, who had to properly translate the film while modernizing it for an American audience. Keeping the content intact was of utmost importance as the animation, the story, remained the same. Some of the cultural differences were addressed and I believe handled very well. This film has been compared to “Alice in Wonderland” and this is how I felt audiences would approach it. If anything at all in the film seemed different, it would simply be accepted as being part of this mythical world that we had stepped through with Chihiro. It all seemed perfectly natural. Back to Disc Two… As a bonus, Disney has also included a storyboard-to-scene comparison of the first 11 minutes of the film. Here, we can toggle back and forth between Miyazki’s storyboards and the actual film. In the Nippon special, we are given a course on the hand-drawn animation process, which is basically made up of Storyboards, Key Animation (cleaned-up drawings), and In-Betweens (the action that links one drawing to the next so that the film flows). The comparisoin feature allows us to see this entire animation process compressed, from start to finish, from idea to glorious realization. Lastly we have the original Japanese trailers and promos. There are more than 20 in all, ranging from the 4-minute plus trailer cut to the song “Always With Me” (written by Youmi Kimura) to the 15-second promos that were used after the film was released. This feature alone is over 30 minutes long and is wonderful to watch, as well as interesting as a comparison to American trailers. Many of the “Spirited Away” trailers have opening credits (which was new to me), with the director and actors being listed, along with the music's writer. One of the tag lines often used was: “At the other end of the tunnel was a town unlike any other”, and a few of the promos used a quote from Miyazaki himself about one of the film’s most important characters, No-Face: “Everyone has ‘No-Face’ within himself.” A distinct difference I noticed in these trailers versus those for American animation films is the seriousness of tone. Though certainly magical and fantastic, it is clear from the trailers that this is a serious, emotional film that doesn’t mind saying that it is. When they show Chihiro losing her name for instance, how can one’s heart not be broken? For over 20 years, Miyazaki has been wooed by studios, but not until he secured Disney's promise that his films would remain untouched did he finally decide that the time was right. Thus, the Mouse House has made this possible. In his introduction to "Spirited Away," Pixar’s John Lasseter tells us that we are lucky. Lucky for what we are about to see. We are. Along with its Academy Award, "Spirited Away" was also the first animated film to win the Golden Bear, top honors at the Berlin Film Festival. Overall Rating: A for the film, A for the DVD. * Disney has also released Miyazaki’s “Castle in the Sky” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” on DVD for fans both old and new. |
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