Starring: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Running Time: 125 mins
Certificate: U
Release Date: November 24th 2014 (UK)

As Spirited Away is the movie that helped Studio Ghibli become far better known in the West than it ever had before – particularly when it walked away with the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s never come out on Blu-ray in the UK before. However now it’s here, getting a release of its own before it becomes part of an 11 disc Studio Ghibli Blu-ray collection on December 8th.

It is undoubtedly a strange and often weird movie, but also a beautiful and incredibly involving one. There’s an odd sense of randomness to much of it, but then there also was to The Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland, which undoubtedly served as inspiration for the way the story is told. [Read more…]