Spirited Away

What in the psychedelic Japanese Alice In Wonderland freak show did I just watch? I've heard a lot of good things about this film over the last few years; I've done a lot of research on best animated films of all time and this always ends up in that conversation. Well, for the last few days some friends of mine have been recommending "Studio Ghibli" to me cause apparently I'm one of the only people who's never heard of it or seen it... and now I understand why they're saying I've been missing out. There's no adjective good enough to describe this film. The deep layers, meanings, messages, etc. spread throughout this film are so complex but so simple at the same time. Chihiro being an innocent little girl in a large hotel, surrounded by the living, the dead, spirits, animals, monsters, and freaks, trying to rescue her parents who turned into pigs, while everything and everyone around her is succumbing to greed and power, makes it a very strange, but wonderful adventure I didn't want to end. When it finally did, it was also really sweet to see Haku be Chihiro's true love to set him free, too. Also the character arc Chihiro goes on is awesome. She went from a scared little girl in a new town, to feeling like she can on anything after her adventure. Steven Spielberg said that this may be better than any Disney film... that was what made my decision for putting this on and you know what? I might agree with him. This might be the greatest animated film of all time and also deserves the best film talk, PERIOD. The animation is so beautiful, too. Holy crap it just takes my breath way. The music is also really fun and whimsical. But yeah, I'm now a fan of Studio Ghibli and I cannot wait to watch more.