Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away' Gets U.S. Screenings

By Vianne Ilagan, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Award-winning anime classic "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki is coming to American cinemas this month and next month. Fathom Events has confirmed that the Academy Award-winning film will be shown in U.S. theaters for three nights, specifically on Oct. 29, Oct. 30, and Nov. 1.

Fathom Events made the official announcement earlier this week on its website. Describing the anime, the studio wrote, "Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-winning masterpiece 'Spirited Away' was the biggest box office hit of all time in Japan and helped redefine the possibilities of animation for American audiences and a generation of new filmmakers."

The announcement further talked about the plot of the animated classic, "Chichiro thinks she is on another boring trip with her parents. But when they stop at a village that is not all that it seems, her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, and Chihiro is whisked into a world of fantastic spirits, shape-shifting dragons and a witch who never wants to see her leave. She must call on the courage she never knew she had to free herself and return her family to the outside world."

According to Fathom Events, the screenings scheduled on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1 will be dubbed while the film to be shown on Oct. 30 will feature subtitles instead. All the three upcoming screenings will also feature the GKIDS Mini-Fest, a festival of some of the best animated short films around the globe.

The original classic reportedly took $15 million to produce, and many consider it as the best-ever to date computer-aided cell animation. Critics commend it for not treating its viewers delicately, as it features genuinely frightening and violent scenes that could shock even parents. The lead character is also perfect — she acts and talks like a real ten-year-old, keeping the film child-appropriate despite the realistically nerve-racking scenes.

The cast of the English-dubbed version of the film includes Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden, Suzanne Pleshette, David Ogden Stiers, Susan Egan, and Tara Strong.