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Spirited Away

Spirited Away (2001)

tomatometer

97

Average Rating: 8.5/10
Reviews Counted: 156
Fresh: 151 | Rotten: 5

Spirited Away is a dazzling, enchanting, and gorgeously drawn fairy tale that will leave viewers a little more curious and fascinated by our world.

100

Average Rating: 8.7/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 0

Spirited Away is a dazzling, enchanting, and gorgeously drawn fairy tale that will leave viewers a little more curious and fascinated by our world.

audience

95

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 284,578

My Rating

Movie Info

Master animation director Hayao Miyazaki follows up on his record-breaking 1997 opus Princess Mononoke with this surreal Alice in Wonderland-like tale about a lost little girl. The film opens with ten-year-old Chihiro riding along during a family outing as her father races through remote country roads. When they come upon a blocked tunnel, her parents decide to have a look around -- even though Chihiro finds the place very creepy. When they pass through the tunnel, they discover an abandoned

Apr 15, 2003

$9.9M

Walt Disney Pictures

Cast

All Critics (156) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (163) | Rotten (5) | DVD (48)

Think you're too hip for Japanese anime about a lost ten-year-old girl whose parents turn into snorting pigs? Get over it.

August 14, 2007 Comments (14)
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Miyazaki's nonstop images are so stunning, and his imagination so vivid, that the only possible complaint you could have about Spirited Away is that there is no rest period, no timeout.

November 4, 2002 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Visually imaginative, thematically instructive and thoroughly delightful, it takes us on a roller-coaster ride from innocence to experience without even a hint of that typical kiddie-flick sentimentality.

October 10, 2002 Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[Spirited Away is] the most deeply and mysteriously satisfying animated feature to come along in ages.

October 6, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Packed with strange beings amid painterly settings, Spirited Away delivers one of the most colorful fantasy worlds since the similarly surreal Yellow Submarine.

October 4, 2002 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Children may not understand everything that happens -- I'm not sure even Miyazaki himself does -- but they will almost certainly be fascinated, and undoubtedly delighted.

October 4, 2002 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...a gorgeously animated yet sporadically entertaining endeavor that isn't quite the instant classic one might've expected...

March 5, 2012 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comments (7)
Reel Film Reviews

Magnificent, spellbinding movie has a bit of edge.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Full of riches, thematic and visual, and the best way to understand them is simply to watch the film and take it all in.

March 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comments (2)
Antagony & Ecstasy

Spirited Away exalts the young girl Chihiro's uncanny experiences into an adventure that is as thrillingly ambiguous as it is vividly soundtracked and illustrated.

August 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks | Comment
Nick's Flick Picks

I went nuts over this movie.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

Filmgoers of all ages should not pass up the opportunity to experience such a work of staggering imagination.

December 28, 2008 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

This persistently fascinating if slightly over-long fairytale is propelled by the seemingly boundless imagination of writer-director Hayao Miyazaki.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

Spirited Away is wonderful.

September 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A fractured, knotted story about adjusting to new surroundings and having courage in the face of peril.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

Despite a dip midway through, this is a captivating fantasy that sets a new benchmark for animation.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Initially seems like a Through the Looking-Glass fantasy, but rapidly picks up a resonance, weight and complexity that make it all but Shakespearean.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comments (2)

I struggled to find the source of imperfection in this film

September 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | Comments (3)

Far and away the best film I've seen this year.

January 15, 2005 Comment
Looking Closer

Western audiences will recognize in this "little girl lost" movie a number of similarities to Baum's Wizard of Oz and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

August 14, 2004 Comment
Reel.com

Not instructive, as Disney is, and not aloof, like anime. Spirited Away is fun without being a lesson, and it welcomes you in.

July 6, 2004 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS) | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Spirited Away

Breath-taking, magical animation and a story with a big heart; and though I'm still not sure I understood the premise, exactly, this was a beautiful film to watch, brilliantly drawn and animated.

April 24, 2012
danperry17

Super Reviewer

I have no doubt that Spirited Away is the most imaginative movie I have ever seen in my life. It was the first Studio Ghibli film I ever saw and I couldn't have picked anything better quite frankly...well besides Princess Mononoke. Firstly, I love how it approaches both adults and children. Young viewers of Spirited

August 16, 2011
Directors Cat
Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

    1. Yubaba/Zeniba: [after turning Boh into a mouse] There. Your body matches your brain.
    – Submitted by Isabella M (41 days ago)
    1. Chihiro [USA Version]: I'm dreaming,im dreaming! [pounds herself in the head]
    – Submitted by David M (4 months ago)
    1. Chihiro: [leans near elevator wall]
    2. Lin: You wanna lose your nose?!
    – Submitted by Diego T (11 months ago)
    1. Kamaji: Here, roasted newt, real quality.
    – Submitted by Diego T (11 months ago)
    1. Lin [USA Version]: Sen! I'm sorry I called you a dope before... I take it back!
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

Latest News for Spirited Away

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August 21, 2008:
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Foreign Titles

  • Chihiros Reise ins Zauberland (DE)
  • Spirited Away (UK)
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