Post
by TaranT » Tue Sep 24, 2002 12:21 am
These are my first impressions of Spirited Away after watching it on DVD:
NOTE: I think the following is spoiler-free, but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, STOP reading here.
1. Some visual aspects appear (to me) to be derivative of other works. Creature designs, for example, borrow from Totoro: the large "gods" and the soot sprites. Also, the hotel scenes with the large number of bizarre creatures from the netherworld who can sniff out humans in their midst...this is very (very!) reminiscent of Tsui Hark's animated A Chinese Ghost Story.
2. The movie seems to lack substance, or "heart". Largely, this is due to the main character. Sen is not the idealistic heroine of Nausicaa, nor the sensitive girl of Totoro. She's kind of a spoiled brat, at least at first. And for most of the film, she's an Alice in crazy-land, reacting to one insane circumstance after another. She never really takes charge, and it's hard to believe she really cares that much about anything.
Those are my two main griefs with the film, and I may change my mind about both when I've had a chance to see it again on a large screen (when it opens wider in a week or two). As with every Miyazaki film (except maybe The Yamadas) there are scenes in Sen that can take your breath away. The soundtrack is also good, although nothing in the music grabbed me as it did with Nausicaa or Laputa.
In short, I still recommend it highly, but with the reservation that it isn't the best of the Ghibli films. Production-wise, it may well be the best, but not as a story.
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