Writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, who previously made the impressive Princess Mononoke, has created a wonderfully bizarre world filled with a gallery of creepy, and some not so-creepy, characters.
The result is nothing less than magical, a throwback to the very best of early Disney. If I can't remember the last time I was this enchanted by an animated film, it's because I was too young.
Knock me down with a feather, it turns out to be terrific; maybe not a masterpiece, but certainly aglitter with invention, excitement and a mysterious kind of wit.
Miyazaki's luminescent, gorgeously realized world is relatively safe for children, but it also acknowledges blood, pain, dread, and death in ways that other animated films wouldn't dare.
This one is an event, a huge accomplishment in the world of traditional animation and a powerful rebuttal to the notion that films for children must be simplistic and visually dull.
Artful but not arty, Spirited Away is a handcrafted cartoon, as personal as an Utamaro painting, yet its breadth and heart give it an appeal that should touch American viewers of all ages.