Spirited Away Reviews

Sorry, y'all -- I give up.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Yes, Spirited Away is a triumph of imagination, but it's also a failure of storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Something akin to a Japanese Alice Through the Looking Glass, except that it seems to take itself far more seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

'Alice's adventure through the looking glass and into zombie-land' is filled with strange and wonderful creatures.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Magnificent, spellbinding movie has a bit of edge.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Filled with haunting imagery, subtly rendered characters and an emotional core absent from most anime, Spirited Away is a rich cinematic experience, a story that reads like direct translation of the director's dream...

Full Review | Original Score: A

This is one of the year's best films.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Miyazaki has provided another triumph, and, in the midst of the quality fall-off of Disney's in-house animated projects, a reason for animation-lovers to rejoice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

It's easy to get lost amid the flow, as characters transform and magical powers emerge and disappear without warning.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

There's a sense of delicacy, and artfulness, in the tone and in the magic. The 10-year-olds who see this like to be scared, but they won't have nightmares days afterward.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

An amazing piece of work.

Full Review

Has the mythic quality and the familiarity of great children's literature.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

It races along with the speed of a bullet train, visiting weird, enchanted places the likes of which have never been seen before.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10

An animated film that is among the most delightful, imaginative stories I've seen all year.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

A film not to miss.

| Original Score: 4.5/5

Spirited Away conjures up a beautiful, diverse, richly envisioned tale that constantly delights... even when it verges on the limits of coherence.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Miyazaki seems to have an inexhaustible supply of ideas to fill the screen and to fill screen time.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

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

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10

The most enchanting thing about Miyazaki's work is his desire to do just that -- enchant.

Full Review