As with all of his features since Princess Mononoke, the film incorporates computer animation, but it’s primarily applied to a handful of action sequences to either maintain the speed of certain shots or to add small flourishes, like embers that spew out of the furnace with noticeably three-dimensional definition. The animation of that journey shows Miyazaki working at the height of his powers.
Chihiro’s ultimate weapon against her is guilelessness, not only for its ability to attract friends and allies, but its power to resist the mortal temptations offered up to derail her journey. Yubaba, the witch who rules over the bathhouse (and, by extension, the village), is more collected and cunning, but her opulent living conditions at the top of a tower give away her own greed. So enthralled are the other spirits by gold that when a demon who reflects the desires of those around it enters the spa, it immediately begins spewing gold and gluttonously devouring food and person alike, revealing the venality that dictates the region. Chihiro first finds herself in the bowels of a furnace helping magically animated soot feed coal into the burner, but soon she works in the central bathhouse above, where the desperate social angling of other laborers can be seen in the constant jockeying for tips and bath tokens. The fastidious Miyazaki envisions the spirit realm from the ground up, and a surprising amount of this children’s film is devoted to exploring the social stratification and economy of the area. Along the way, she meets witches, animist spirits, and demons, each of whom adds a new wrinkle to Chihiro’s quest. When her parents wander into a strange village and undergo a Circean transformation into pigs, 10-year-old Chihiro must venture into a shadow world to find the key to saving them.
If the theme of the film is simple, however, the narrative is anything but. At its heart, the film is about a spoiled child taking responsibility to save herself and her parents, as elemental a hero’s journey as they come. Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away belongs to a tradition of moralistic and instructive bedtime stories.
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