Likewise, in Spirited Away the focus is on how the young girl Chihiro learns to cope with a strange magical reality, while beginning to understand that new responsibilities of the adult world will impinge upon her childhood eventually. Chihiro and her parents stumble into a Otherworld in which the rules are totally different. Immediately her parents are turned into pigs, and it is up to Chihiro to come to terms with how this world works, to rescue her parents and find a way back to their own world. In Spirited Away Chihiro is immersed in this odd reality, while Satsuki and Mei only interact with it occasionally, and Chihiro must find her path without the comfort of even one parent.
Once again, Miyazaki points to the importance of integrity, honesty and love as being the overriding characteristics needed to survive in a world that sometimes makes no sense. Chihiro learns discernment and trust, and becomes a girl who is able to take risks and be independent. The kind of lessons all children must learn as the grown-up world beckons.
In Europe the DVDs of two of Miyazaki's other films, Castle in the Sky (Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta, 1986) and Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no takkyubin, 1989) will be released on November 10th. Only Princess Mononoke and The Castle of Cagliostro (Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro, 1979) are available on region 2 DVD, though most of the others can be obtained in the USA. With the world-wide success of Spirited Away I'm sure we'll see more of Miyazaki's work getting a DVD transfer for the European market.
Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki's animation studio, has another project on the horizon for next year. It will be releasing its adaptation of Diane Wynne Jones's novel, Howl's Moving Castle.
Let's hope this time the movie gets the widespread release deserving of such a talented director and Studio.
Article comments
1 - BJ
Great writeup. The guy's a genious.
One question: I apologize if I'm dense and just mis-reading your post, but does that mean My Neighbor Totoro is available on DVD in the U.S. now?
(Kiki's Delivery Service is available on Netflix. It's cool.)
2 - Maura
Hi BJ,
Yeah, if you check out the list of DVDs at the end of my article you'll see "My Neighbour Totoro" is available for sale on Amazon.com.
However, if you take a look at the comments on Amazon.com you'll see that the transfer isn't the best, and there is only an English-dubbed version on the DVD. I read that Fox, who produced the DVD, lose the rights next year, and hopefully then someone else will take over the distribution and will create a better DVD.
All the best,
Maura
3 - randy
Maura: How cool to see you in Blogcritics. One of my earlier posts was about Spirited Away. Is this great minds thinking alike? :-)
4 - Disie
Hayao Miyazaki is a genious where can i find some contacts so i can get in touch with the crew im really interested in japanese annimation and want to maybe become an annimator myself Help please!
5 - ali kay
You make amazing movies!