Saturday, May 31, 2008

Spirited Away (2001)

I don't like anime. That's just the fact of it. I find it exhausting. It's normally too long and very boring because it lacks a cohesive plot and the characters all scream in high pitched voices instead of talking. Maybe I've seen the wrong anime but that's my opinion of the genre thus far nonetheless. This one surprised me a bit. It was still too long and boring and the characters voices still annoys me but it at least had a somewhat interesting plot.

So Chihiro and her parents (who I think we're supposed to be ok with but I thought them callous and mean) are moving to a new place. Chihiro is not happy about this. Her dad misses the turn to the new house and ends up in front of what looks like a temple. The parents, dismissing Chihiro's please against the idea, decide to go into the temple and look around and then to eat some food left out in a market like area on the other side. They promptly get turned into pigs. It turns out this temple is a bathhouse for the spirits and no humans are allowed--they get turned into pigs and eaten. So Chihiro is in a bit of trouble. She gets help from Haku who is presumably an aid to the witch who runs the place but seems to have a heart. Anyway, he helps her, she has to work in the bathhouse and then rescue her parents. Meanwhile, she gets caught up in other intrigues involving witches and spirits and monsters. She perseveres and grows up a bit (which is good because she was whiny and annoying at the beginning) and saves her parents who are still mean and callous. The end.

Right. It could have been an hour long instead of the over two hours. Everyone could have talked normally--the voices were redone for an American audience. Watch it if you like anime or are punishing yourself by trying to watch a bunch of movies on a list of which it is a part. Otherwise, I'd skip it.

No comments: