Spirited Away: Giving It Another Shot

An Alice In Wonderland-like scene from Spirited Away. L-R No-Face,
Chihiro Ogino, Zeniba, & (on table) Boh with friend.

Spirited Away: Giving It Another Shot


A few years back I saw Hayao Miyazakis' anime-ted film Spirited Away ... on Cartoon Network ... AND HATED IT.

It was too darn long. Too darn weird even for a fantasy. And Puke-Faces' ... er ... uh ... No-Faces' puke fest didn't help at all. I don't know why I wasted over three hours viewing that mess. And it was a mess. Though at the time I knew why ... commercials ... stretching  a 2 hr, 5 min. film into three long agonizing hours.

I was a 'victim' of one of TV programmings' not so subtle little tricks: Show the first 20+ minutes of a flick to get you hooked then slog through commercial breaks every 10 minutes or less. Unless it's commercial free, the vast majority of films are unsuited for TV. Spirited Away is no exception.

I knew eventually I would have to give this movie another chance. Cartoon Networks' handling of it left such a bad taste, I kept putting it off for several years. Finally the taste went away & I got to thinking seriously of another try. So it was with some reluctance I scored a copy at Half Price Books & popped it in the disc machine.

BIG DIFFERENCE! The film didn't drag this time. The weirdness was more enjoyable without the latest must-have piece of junk being shoved at me. No-Faces' vomit party was only a few minutes long (I'm sure there were TWO{!} commercial breaks during that sequence when it aired!). I STILL think it's a bit on the long side (I'm a 90 minute man.) but it being a Miyazaki flick & all that goes with it, more than makes up for it.

I think I'll keep this one.


Wikipedia article on Spirited Away here.

Wikipedia article on Hayao Miyazaki here.


Go to Jays' Tee Vee blog main page here.