SUPPOSE YOU take a wrong turn into a dark tunnel and find yourself in a world of vomiting monsters, bouncing heads and ghosts capable of swallowing a junkyard full of trash? Is there anyone you can call?
Well, no. But you'll be fine because, chances are, you're watching "Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away,' " another weirdly wonderful offering from Hayao Miyazaki, who made the delightful "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Princess Mononoke."
A 10-year-old girl is lost in a mysterious world of witches and monsters.
(Walt Disney)
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Let me just say "weirdly" again. This movie – which is equally appealing to children (those of adventurous, non-freak-outable spirit), Japanese animation (anime) fans, and any surviving acquaintances of Timothy Leary – is so full of invention, you might want to take a breather now and then.
It's full of story, too. (It lasts more than two hours – unconventionally long for a children's film.) As with many Japanese animated films, the plot kind of drags on and on. After a while, you may feel like standing up and saying, "Excuse me. No more new weird characters, please." But this is a cultural wildcard experience: wacky, different, unusual, even nutty. Don't say I didn't encourage and warn you.
Let me try to tell you what happens.
Chihiro (voice of Daveigh Chase), a 10-year-old girl, is unhappy, as her parents drive to their new home in suburbia. New school, new friends, new house? She's terrified. Then comes that unexpected turn into a strange tunnel.
Where are they? The family parks the car and walks toward a lovely smell. A barbecue, it looks like. Mother and father start eating. And eating. Chihiro's worried. There's no one around. Shouldn't they wait for someone to appear?
Okay, there's only one way to say this: Her parents turn into pigs.
And so begins an adventure, passingly reminiscent of such stories as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz." Chihiro, who wants to find a way to restore her parents to human form, finds herself in a large bath-house full of ghosts and spirits. The institution is run by Yubaba (voice of Suzanne Pleshette), a nasty, beak-nosed dowager who looks like Robin Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire: 30 Years Later" and doesn't like humans in her establishment.
Chihiro gets help in her quest from a young boy called Haku (Jason Marsden), who can transform into a dragon. And she meets all manner of strange beings, including Kamaji "The Boiler Man" (David Ogden Stiers), a six-armed, bearded man with no body (at least, that I recall seeing); those bouncing heads; and that junk-chomping creation. There are more creations but I think you get the picture. Let's just say that "Spirited Away," which won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival, and was the most popular film ever in Japan, is like nothing you've seen, unless you're an anime fan. And like Chihiro you'll certainly get spirited away.
MIYAZAKI'S 'SPIRITED AWAY' (PG, 125 minutes) – Contains some intense material, from vomiting monsters to the devouring of people. At the Cineplex Odeon Shirlington and AMC Mazza Gallerie.
