There's a quote on Tumblr somewhere that says "Disney movies touch the heart but Studio Ghibli films touch the soul.
It's surely part of the reason that anime fans across the world will testify that Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is the best animation film of all time. On the 15th anniversary of its release in Japan, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi β translated as "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away" β remains untouched by rivals for its blend of the spiritual, the realistic, the fantastic and the human. For balancing all of those realms, Miyazaki was the master, and since his retirement we'll continue to look on Spirited Away as the film that was the masterpiece of his life.
At its most basic, the film follows a little girl, Chihiro, on a journey to free her parents. She has to navigate the spirit world she gets trapped in by working in a bathhouse run by an overlord called Yu-baaba.
Miyazaki said he'd decided to make it based on the year-old daughter of friend, associate producer Seiji Okuda, who came to stay with him every summer. With this in mind, he made the movie for year-old girls. This is exactly why it resonates so well with people of all ages and why Chihiro feels so real. How often can you say a film has been made for young girls, rather than money or mainstream audiences? Many male critics described Chihiro as a "sullen" and "spoilt" girl, and continue to describe her as such.
This is hardly a fair criticism, nor is it an accurate one. When we meet Chihiro, she's being driven away from her home and everything she knows to live in a new town. All she has to remember her friends is a bouquet. How depressing," she says, only to be reminded by her mum that her dad bought her one for her birthday. She shrugs this off, understandably. Few year-olds would behave so well given the upheaval.
