Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi 2001

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Spirited Away delivers chunks of Yellow Submarine and The Phantom Tollbooth -- a vividly timeless oddity suitable for many children and most stoners. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Children may not understand everything that happens -- I'm not sure even Miyazaki himself does -- but they will almost certainly be fascinated, and undoubtedly delighted. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: In scene after scene, Spirited Away unleashes so much wonder and visual imagination that you end up watching the movie in a state of rapturous, awestruck bliss. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: An amazing piece of work. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A movie full of bewitching images and timeless fun and beauty. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: If you're dispirited by look-alike, sound-alike, think-alike movies, disturbed by an art form that seems not only to tolerate, but also to reward a paucity of imagination, you're not going to believe your luck. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Visually imaginative, thematically instructive and thoroughly delightful, it takes us on a roller-coaster ride from innocence to experience without even a hint of that typical kiddie-flick sentimentality. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The film is not recommended for toddlers and easily frightened little tykes. But for everyone else, kid or grown-up, this thrilling foray into magical realms is a must. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Miyazaki, the master animator and director of the enchanting Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke, leads us through the looking glass as never before in Spirited Away. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Artful but not arty, Spirited Away is a handcrafted cartoon, as personal as an Utamaro painting, yet its breadth and heart give it an appeal that should touch American viewers of all ages. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: A marriage between the power of Mononoke and the lively pop-pop-pop of his film My Friend Totoro. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Hayao Miyazaki's breathtakingly beautiful and poetic Spirited Away -- a Japanese cross between Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz -- is such a landmark in animation that labeling it a masterpiece almost seems inadequate. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Spirited Away has much to say about many worthy things: the life of the spirit, materialist greed, the importance of words, the power of love. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Miyazaki's nonstop images are so stunning, and his imagination so vivid, that the only possible complaint you could have about Spirited Away is that there is no rest period, no timeout. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Miyazaki's luminescent, gorgeously realized world is relatively safe for children, but it also acknowledges blood, pain, dread, and death in ways that other animated films wouldn't dare. Read more

Ted Shen, Chicago Reader: Enchanting and impressively crafted. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Packed with strange beings amid painterly settings, Spirited Away delivers one of the most colorful fantasy worlds since the similarly surreal Yellow Submarine. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A triumph of psychological depth and artistic brilliance. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: That rare movie that has the emotional and psychological depth to match its stunning surface. Read more

David Chute, L.A. Weekly: This English-language version ... does full honor to Miyazaki's teeming and often unsettling landscape, and to the conflicted complexity of his characters. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: A haunting and indelible fable that warms the chilly soul of Japanese anime and points the way for its American sponsor. Read more

Michael Agger, New Yorker: It's an amazing work, filled with a visual intelligence that's meticulously composed and obscenely clever. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Spirited Away is] the most deeply and mysteriously satisfying animated feature to come along in ages. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The result is nothing less than magical, a throwback to the very best of early Disney. If I can't remember the last time I was this enchanted by an animated film, it's because I was too young. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Miyazaki has provided another triumph, and, in the midst of the quality fall-off of Disney's in-house animated projects, a reason for animation-lovers to rejoice. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is one of the year's best films. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Spirited Away is a trip, in the literal, metaphorical and indeed lysergic senses of that word. Read more

C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle: A lovely, evocative tour de force. Read more

Don Irvine, Globe and Mail: Spirited Away has the quality of a dream: It takes you places so foreign and fantastic you have no option but to yield completely to it and be spirited along. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Spirited Away is every bit as captivating for its sheer graphic power as it is for its message of go-get-'em-girl power. Read more

Tony Rayns, Time Out: Initially seems like a Through the Looking-Glass fantasy, but rapidly picks up a resonance, weight and complexity that make it all but Shakespearean. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, Time Out: Has few rivals as a work of visual imagination. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Even though Disney released this film, Spirited Away points up just how by-the-numbers the studio's fare can be. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: The magic (and original running time) of ace Japanimator Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away survives intact in BV's re-voiced version. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A cultural wildcard experience: wacky, different, unusual, even nutty. Read more

Jane Horwitz, Washington Post: Like old myths and wonder tales spun afresh. Read more