This week's blu-ray pick is Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, the Oscar winner for Animated Film in 2003 (after it was finally released in the U.S.) and one of the most popular classics in his long list of iconic films. This one is a wild, crazy, twisted tale of a little girl who walks into an abandoned amusement park and essentially goes through a kind of rabbit hole, as she ends up in a magical world filled with spirits, dragons, witches and other assorted villains as she must race to become the hero of her own adventure. The closest comparison to make to this film is Alice in Wonderland, but it's honestly a better movie than the Disney version of that, which was really just a series of vignettes through Alice's crazytown. This film has a structured narrative and fully developed characters that you root for the entire time. It's great for kids (maybe a little scary throughout) and I'd even ease up on my no dubbing rule in order for them to watch it. It's that good.
Original Japanese Trailer (with English subs):
