Spirited Away

A stunning visual spectacle that takes place in perhaps the greatest imaginary land ever created. When I first watched this movie I was very young, perhaps as young as Chihiro is. I distinctly remember watching the beginning of it on TV, and Yunaba scared me so badly and the fear of potentially being in a situation like Chihiro’s was so overwhelming that I didn’t want to watch it any further. But now, as an adult, I come to respect Spirited Away not just for its visual prowess and epic world building, but because this was a movie that was trying to tell me something about myself that I wasn’t ready for—that when I grew up, I’d be able to do it just like she did.