Miyazaki's Spirited Away U.S. Release

soupforare writes "Spirited Away is slated for a US limited theatre release in on Sep. 27th nausicaa.net has a theatre listing and some more info. It looks like some theatres are even going to be showing the subtitled version." No showings near me, but hopefully those prints will make it around. Been wanting to see this one for a long time.

Comments

100% on Rotten Tomatoes thus far...

[gnguyen]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/SpiritedAway-11160 64/

I've had the wonderful opportunity to see this movie several times already. It's my favorite Miyazaki flick. It's great eye-candy and wonderful fantasy. Highly recommended. See it in the best theater you can.

Saw it in Telluride Colorado, Labor Day weekend

[torklugnutz]

This movie was a special sneak preview at the 29th Telluride Film Festival, Labor Day Weekend. It played twice and was well recieved. I saw the first showing and I was pretty impressed. TFF also premiered Mononoke when it came out a couple years ago.

Of the 2 movies, I think that Mononoke is better. The story is a little more enjoyable for me. Spirited Away has the excellent animation that you'd expect from Miyazaki, and the excellent voice acting that we've come to expect from Disney. All in all, It's a great translation and a good film. I think it's geared towards a slghtly younger audience than Mononoke was though.

Re:Roger Ebert has a write up on this...

[domninus.DDR]

I wish Roger Ebert would make his support of anime (although its mainly Miyazaki films) better known to the public. I'm pretty sure mononoke was on his top 10 list for the year it came out.

Re:If you liked Princess Mononoke...

[tdelaney]

I've got to say that I disagree with this. Nausicaa is very good, but it really pales in comparison to the manga.

Kiki's Delivery Service (also Miyazaki for those who don't know) is my all-time favourite movie (of any genre), and one of the few where I enjoy the dub as much as the sub (Kirsten Dunst was perfect as Kiki :)

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is without a doubt my favourite manga. An incredibly strong, detailed storyline, beautiful drawing. The anime suffered due to the fact that the manga was not complete when the anime was made.

Excellent movie!

[Chembal]

I just bought this movie on DVD when I was in Japan two weeks ago. It's EXCELLENT! The animation was great, and it had a wonderful storyline. I would definitely recommend seeing it when it hits the theater. Or, if you have or are in the mood for region hacking your DVD player (for those not in region 2) go order the DVD.

Re:If you liked Princess Mononoke...

[aardvarkjoe]

Part of why Nausicaa was so good was because it had all the background of the manga behind it -- and it really shows. Although the world in the movie is simplified (otherwise, it would have been as long as the "Lord of the Rings") the amount of background behind the story is apparent. Anyway, I don't think that having an alternative version of the story should take anything away from the movie. It just lets you enjoy it twice as much.

Kiki's Delivery Service was a good movie as well (... my list of 'favorite anime' pretty much would have all of Miyazaki's stuff to start it...), although not as memorable as Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke. Obviously, of course, a large part of the difference is a difference in taste -- the target and themes of those movies are rather different. As others have said, Spirited Away bears much more resemblance to Kiki than Princess Mononoke, and so will appeal to different people.

Oh, while I'm talking -- for those of you lucky enough to go see Spirited Away, keep an eye out for the attention to detail, especially in Chihiro's movements. The realism of the little things just blew me away -- it's something that you just don't see in Disney movies. I guarantee you'll be impressed.

Sprited Away Opinion (spoilers)

[kamapuaa]

I saw the Japanese DVD last week, and I have to admit, I thought this was one of the lower-grade Miyazaki movies. Which means it's still worth watching, especially on a big screen with subtitles, but don't expect too much - I've read reviews that call it the best movie released this year, but everybody (who reads them) knows the SF Weekly writers smoke crack.

The movie most closesly resembles Ghibli's "Ponpoko," in that it's random misadventures, where the generic lead and generic supporting cast go through a series of misadventures that can't really be called a plot. As opposed to the really cool worlds of other Ghibli movies, the setting is mostly the claustrophobic servant's quarters of a luxury hotel. Once you accept the weirdness of the setting, there really isn't much interesting about it.

Similarly to Ponpoko, the reason to watch it is for the whimsical animated asides. Monsters look crazy and whatnot. It's not as continually imaginative as the novel _Alice in Wonderland_, or the best anime, but it's still a site to see, and is continually well-drawn. A lot of the monsters incorporate traditional Japanese demons, so it's probably more exotic and overwhelming for an American audience, than it would be for Japanese. I don't know if that's good or bad, though.

A final note: man, these ten year old girls who have to fend for themselves, but end up making good because of their kindness and plucky spirit, is as big a cliche as anything in American movies. "Princess Mononoke" wasn't my favorite, but I was hoping Miyazaki would continue dealing with more difficult themes, and having more interesting leads. I think this movie was a step back to standard Ghibli - only, without anything special enough make it stand out from what's come before.