Spirited Away

SPIRITED AWAY: HAYAO MIYAZAKI: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE This book focusses on Hayao Miyazakis 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away, winner of the Best Animated Movie Oscar. Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is without a doubt a masterpiece of cinema, and one of Hayao Miyazakis great works. It is one of the most spectacular films of colour you will ever see. Its the movie that brought Miyazaki to a global audience, even more perhaps than Princess Mononoke (though by the time of Spirited Away, Miyazaki was a household name in Japan). Born on January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, Hayao Miyazaki is known as the Japanese Disney, a filmmaker as revered - and as popular - as Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg. Miyazaki, in short, is a true phenomenon in contemporary animation and in world cinema. Hayao Miyazakis movies include Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle In the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro. Hayao Miyazaki may be the most talented fantasy filmmaker of his generation: not even the finest filmmakers of Hollywood can rival his films when it comes to creating fantasy worlds, and fantastical characters and events. Miyazaki has millions of fans around the world, not least among fellow animators and filmmakers, for whom he is a genius. What Hayao Miyazakis films do is to bring you completely into a fantasy world that is instantly recognizable and familiar. Its as if these fantasy realms have always existed - very much like J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle-earth or Ursula Le Guins Earthsea (both influences on Miyazaki). The visionary and magical elements are fused with the domestic and familial and social elements , so that it seems completely ordinary and believable that, say, flying machines soar overhead which have flapping wings like an insect, or that little white creatures pop up out of trees and make strange clicking noises. This new study of Hayao Miyazakis Spirited Away includes chapters on Miyazakis influences • his c