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A Look at Spirited Away
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THE DESERT WINDS OF CHANGE: How "Spirited Away" Helped This Writer Find Religion (Again)
Warning, this is not a review, nor is it an essay. There isn’t much coherent linear sense to it. I’m throwing structure out the window. Why? I’m under a spell. If this is anything it’s a witnessing. So, can I have an "Amen?" (Thank you.)
Prepare to listen to the ramblings of a convert, and how in my conversion I have found renewal of my faith in what Disney has delivered unto us while enslaved by the evil TS - Tyrannical Secularism (for argument’s and avoidance of legal action’s sake.)
Many of us who have the privilege of writing for this site can often be heard squawking about the sad state of affairs over at Disney re so-called traditional animation. We …. ok, ok….I (yeesh) spout off about the stranglehold that a certain nameless figure has over the greatest collective of talent ever assembled in (and lately scattered from) one studio.
Well, If only yours truly had stopped ranting long enough to remove my heretofore posterior-lodged head I’d have taken seriously my brethren who have been preaching the gospel according to Ghibli. Had I checked my western colloquialism at the door then I would have been hollering about the flame that still burns in Japan; a flame that has been obscured by the clutter of lesser anime, but thankfully been brought forward by Western animators who have escorted it home to us in America.
I believe again in the promise of great animated story telling and I’ve been born again in the bosom of "Spirited Away."
Now, I’m not so muddled as to think Disney is to be credited with what Hayao Miyazaki has mastered, but somewhere from within the castle a team of believers has brought news to the court, and the power of it may yet drive the wicked from their midst. Here is a reminder of the brilliance and majesty of pure, uninhibited story telling magic, all of which we have the power to manifest here at home.
While there are dozens of moments in recent WDFA fare that have elicited "wow!" or "brilliant" or just plain "terrific!" out of me when first my persistent vision was deluded by their magic, seldom of late have I made an audible gasp that made me truly self-conscious sitting in the dark with my fellow parishioners. "Spirited Away" pulled five of them out of me. Authentic, childlike, unaware and unrehearsed I quite loudly breathed out with a sort of quivering sigh that verged on tears.
Without spoiling the film for you (and you WILL go, or I’ve truly failed at my purpose here) I will tease you with just one. (And even here, I’m reluctant to give details.) This moment, which comes early in the first act of the film, has as its inspiration the crossing of the ferry at the end of the first act of "Pinocchio" where the multi-plane camera drew its first round of applause over half a century ago. Only this phantom ferryboat has a passenger list readable only by shadow-light and pulls into view in a most technically unsophisticated fashion. This is the magic not of technology, but of animating. Did I just get to type that? I did, I did, I did!!!! The magic of animating is still alive!!! And in this first of my five breathtaking moments it is as if you are watching watercolor blend onto the paper before your eyes, sending chills up your spine, your heart racing, and - most important of all - your mind become one with the character of Chihiro as she stands on the edge of a river that only moments before wasn’t there, and sits wide-eyed along side of you in wonderment as she is truly spirited away!
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