Spirited Away

Okay.... yeah.... I get it now. It took me a long time to get to this film, and I'm kicking myself for not making it a priority sooner. This was a blast, and my eyes were glued to the screen for the entire duration. Where to even begin talking about this? I guess I love how gross this movie is. It's gross because it plays like a blended-up version of so much of storytelling history; you throw in a dash of Grimm's Fairytales, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and Peter Pan, and then you pour in a bottle of Steven Spielberg and two bottles of Fellini. Sean Fennessy of The Big Picture mentioned on that podcast that you can probably draw a straight line from this film being distributed by Disney in 2001 and winning the Oscar for best animated feature all the way to Parasite winning best picture at the Oscars. As it comes to priming American, western audiences for an Eastern filmmaking sensibility, Ghibli films seem like such a gateway drug that open the doors to diversity in moviegoing. Maybe it's a stretch, but I'd love to do some digging into that concept. Anyway, this film hits the ground running and doesn't allow any time for you to look away or be bored. I can't remember the last time I felt that. The time spent in this spirit world is magical, it's farcical, it's scary at times, and is comprised of awe-inspiring, non-stop creativity. There is active life and movement in every frame of this movie. I feel as though I want to watch this a hundred more times to pick up on new details every time. The way the soot bug balls hop around, the sludge of the stink spirit, the wrinkles on Yubaba's face, the way that all the characters movements have actual weight to them--it's all so painstakingly deliberate and it's so hard to not watch this and marvel at the craft on display. Beyond the craft, there's certainly some metaphor rooted in Japanese culture and folklore that flies past my American brain, but whatever I'm losing out on in terms of metaphor, I'm gaining in pure spectacle and creativity. Did I undertand the purpose of a river spirit taking the form of a heroic young boy who can also turn into a dragon? Nope. But does it matter that I didn't? Nope. This is a film where, if you had paused the film and any moment and asked, "What do you think is going to happen next?" I would have gotten it wrong 100% of the time. Would I have guessed that the floating mask man was going to suddenly generate gold nuggets out of his hands and gobble up the little frog man? Hell no. Would I have guessed that the giant baby would be turned into a mouse by the twin sister of Yubaba? Nope. And that's one of the truly special things about this film--it is unpredictable and unbound to the shackles of logic, it feels like true, honest-to-god dream logic. So, yeah, I don't have much more to say. I can go on and on praising this film. Shame on me for waiting so long, but now I'm officially submitting my application to the Spirited Away clubhouse. 9.5/10