Oh, wow.

[mneme]

Lisa and I finally got around to seeing Spirited Away last night. I think I'd...not so much avoided this, but avoided going too far out of my way to see it, because I found Mononoke to be overhyped, underdone, and while not a -bad- movie, per se, to not be an amazingly good one, either, or even close.

This...isn't anywhere near overhyped; in fact, even with the Oscar, I'd say it's underhyped; it's simply amazing, on almost every level. Character development, myth, plot, wonder, and catharsis.
And while, like every Miazaki film, it has an environmental subplot, in this film, it remains a -subplot-, rather than a "message" pounded into the ground until it bleeds, and is very well handled on a number of layers.

Now I just want to see it in Japanese.

Comments

[sdelmonte]

We haven't seen Spirited Away yet, either - no time before Passover, and no time now - but I agree with your assessment of Mononoke, and am glad to see I am not alone.

Curious, though, as to whether you saw the Gaiman-scripted version of the subtitled. I've been told that the subtitled version is better.

[mneme]

We saw the Gaiman-scripted version of Mononoke Hime, and I would like to see the japanese version of that to compare as well (though since most of my problems are pure story-level script, I -suspect- that while I'd find the Japanese versions for both somewhat suprior, that Spirited Away would still stand far above Mononoke).

[avram]

In many ways, Princess Mononoke is a rehash of Nausicaa, but without the airplanes, so of course it suffers. Spirited Away manages to be great even without airplanes, a notable achievement.

I don't recall an environmental subplot in Porco Rosso (which I considered Miyazaki's best film till Spirited Away came along), and there's barely one in Kiki's Delivery Service. I don't really recall one in Laputa, Castle in the Sky either.