Spirited Away

By: Ashley Shevel

This film is rated PG for some scary moments. and I agree that this film would probably best fit children ages 8 and up. Especially because spirits aren't something that most of our children are use to knowing about and the idea of spirits coming alive and capturing you could be very frightful for a child.

The film Spirited away is a child's film originated from Japan.Ghibli studios, the company that produced this film signed a deal with Disney to release their films worldwide. This animated film once purchased by Disney had new voices added to the characters making the language in English. Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl who is moving to a new house. Her and her parents get lost in th car on the way to the new house, in a forest, outside of a tunnel. They decide to investigate, and end up at an abandend theme park, or so they thought. Chihiro is reluctant to go look around with her parents but goes along for fear of being left alone. Her parents find a single food counter, filled with fresh food. They start to wolf it down with the idea that they will just pay after they have eaten and the server comes back, much to the dismay of Chihiro. She runs off, and she meets a boy, who tells her to leave before its "too late." She runs back to her parents, but they have been turned into pigs. To free her parents of the spell she must work at the 'theme park', which is actually a bathhouse for the Gods and Spirits, of japan. The Japanese culture is evident through out this entire film. It did not explain much about the culture because this film was originally released in Japan. The writers assumed the audience would understand the idea of the spirits and what role they play in their culture. I figured out that in this culture everything seemed to have a spirit. The character Haku was a spirit of the river, who some how became a worker like slave to the bathhouse owner. Because he couldn’t remember his real name he was destined to work at the bathhouse forever.
She goes through newmous "tests" and ends up putting others needs before her own and in the end she ends up being able to free her new found friend who is a spirit of a river and her famiy all because of the corage and selflessness. Through out this film the viewers can watch the main character Chihiro grow, and gain the strenth she needs to over come the frightfull opsticals of this unhuman world.

Here is the trailer check it out for your self and see if its a movie you would like to share with your children.