Director
Hayao Miyazaki
Leading Actors/Actresses
Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, and Mari Natsuki
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashûin, and Yumi Tamai
Genre
Animated
Language
Japanese
Awards
Won one Academy Award: Best Animated Feature
Date of Release
20 July 2001 (in Japan)
Producer
Toshio Suzuki
Setting and Context
Japan
Narrator and Point of View
Through the point of view of Chihiro Ogino
Tone and Mood
Scary, solemn, sad, frightening, mysterious, happy, exploratory, strange, spiritual, exploratory, and heartwarming
Protagonist and Antagonist
Chihiro Ogino vs. Yubaaba
Major Conflict
The main conflict of the film arises when Chihiro and her family go into the spirit world and her parents get turned into pigs. In the face of that, she must work to transform her parents back into humans and fight against the evil forces around her -- particularly Yubaaba.
Climax
The climax occurs when Chihiro rushes to get her parents (who are turned into pigs) as the sun sets. Along the way, ghosts and spirits start to appear en masse.
Foreshadowing
Chihiro's parents grunt while they eat, foreshadowing their eventual transformation into pigs.
Chihiro being left to her own devices is foreshadowed early on in the film.
Understatement
The extent to which Chihiro was on her own and left to her own devices is understated throughout the film.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
While incredibly well-animated, Spirited Away is not innovative in filming or lighting or camera techniques.
Allusions
Allusions to other films, popular culture, history, geography, the Bible, mythology, religion (ghosts/spirits), culture (particularly the Japanese culture -- dragons and samurai chiefly), business, companies, and fiction, religious, and non-fiction texts.
Paradox
Chihiro is a little girl with very few resources, yet she manages to overcome all odds and save her parents
Parallelism
No significant instances of parallelism.
