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Spirited Away
English
Version Voices: Jason Marsden, Suzanne Pleshette, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis,
and John Ratzenberger
Writer:
Hayo Miyazaki
Director:
Hayo Miyazaki
Feature
length: 120 minutes
Languages:
English Dubbed Stereo Sound
Subtitles:
N/A
Packaging:
Two-Disc Jewel Case
Sound:
Stereo Sound
Year
of American Theatrical Release: 2002/VCD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures and Studio Ghibli
Home
Video Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment Through HVN (In Malaysia Only)
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Spirited
Away” won the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar® at the 75th Annual
Academy Awards® last month and the film deserves ever accolade it has gotten
and may still get. Essentially an “Alice In Wonderland” type story, the film
explores how a young girl finds herself through discovering her own inner
strength after following her parents through a hillside tunnel where they find a
strange and apparently abandoned dwelling. When her parents undertake a
mysterious transformation into pigs after sampling the food, which was strangely
left behind, but still quite fresh, Chihiro discovers that the food was a trap
to turn the living into pigs so they can be fattened up eventually fed to
otherworldly spirits that inhabit a parallel universe full of dragons, talking
animals, and many strange and at times grotesque creatures.
Forced
to fend for herself, Chihiro struggles to find away to save her parents as well
as new friends she makes in her adventures while trying to find a way back into
the human world. Every motif from the best fairy tales including psychological
layers within layers of storytelling makes “Spirited Away” one of the finest
animated fantasy films ever made.
The
VCD version spreads the film across two discs with disc one running at 66
minutes and four seconds and disc two running at 54 minutes and five seconds.
The animation is breathtaking and captured in the full widescreen glory with a
letterboxed (2.35:1) aspect ratio and the picture quality is simply amazing
especially for a VCD. The MPEG-1 compression artifacts associated with VCD are
kept to such a minimum that it simply is almost amazing to behold and must be
seen to be believed. The VCD set is terrific work done by The Studio Ghibli and
Buena Vista Home Entertainment who collaborated on mastering this VCD edition
through HVN, which distributes the film in Malaysia. A CD digital quality
English Dubbed Stereo Soundtrack is provided and there are no foreign subtitles
that obscure the image in any way. There are no extra features, but as a less
expensive quality version for those who want the film on a digital media, this
VCD is well worth considering.
The
VCD is PAL formatted and should work in all VCD players capable of converting
PAL to NTSC and DVD Players that are backwardly compatible with VCD as well as
computers that contain either a DVD or CD-ROM player. Check your documentation
first before buying. A fabulous movie in every way, “Spirited Away: The Studio
Ghibli Collection: Original English Language Version” is available for
purchase on VCD now and can be purchased directly online from www.eurekamovies.com.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy The DVD Too By Clicking On The Text Link Below!
Spirited Away