Critic's Grade: C+

At the risk of receiving endless amounts of hate mails and rebuttals, I'm going to put my neck on the chopping block and reveal my true feelings for Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," perhaps the most acclaimed film of 2002, and certainly one of the most heralded anime features in the past decade. The film stands as Japan's highest-grossing film to date, with over $200 million dollars at the domestic box office; it has gone on to receive countless honors at prestigious awards ceremonies, including the second Best Animated Feature Academy Award. So why, after two hours, did I feel like I had missed out on something besides the passing of time?

It's not that I have a thing against anime movies; I found 2001's re-envisionment of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" to be quite dazzling, and even though its story took a few overly-ambitious leaps and bounds, it still made a fair amount of sense in the end. I've also recently seen two of Miyazaki's previous works: "Castle in the Sky," whose storytelling wasn't quite up to par with the intricate visuals, and "Kiki's Delivery Service," which was both impressive in its vision and in its character development. With "Spirited Away," however, I wasn't as moved or awe-inspired by the experience as I felt I should have been. Maybe I was expecting too much from the film (damn the hype!), or maybe there is genuinely something wrong with it that only a select few will ever notice. All I know is that while I was not totally disappointed with it, the movie fails to give me any reason to recommend it beyond its visionary excess.

That's right, everyone: Miyazaki has given us yet another masterpiece of animation that ranks with some of the best that he has done. Everything about "Spirited Away" looks simply fabulous, bringing us into new worlds and introducing us to new and weirdly fascinating creatures that even Lewis Carroll would be amazed over. Show me the latter's envisionment of characters like the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter, and I'll show you Yubaba, the large-headed ruler of the fantasy world into which our young protagonist Chihiro unwittingly steps into while on her way to a new boarding school.

It all begins when she and her parents become lost in the woods on their way to the school; after stepping out of the car, they notice a tunnel, on the other side of which they discover the remains of an abandoned amusement park. Seemingly empty, the park soon comes alive with all manner of spirits and beings, and it's soon clear that humans are not welcome. Chihiro's parents are turned into swine, leaving her alone and fearful as she enters the bathhouse for weary spirits, where she must attain a job and impress Yubaba in order to hopefully save her parents. Along the way, she makes new friends and acquaintances, ranging from a river dragon named Haku to a violent spirit known as No-Face, who shares with Chihiro an apparent disconnectedness from this world in which they dwell.

The first half of the film is interesting in its introductions, but the second half is marred by a plotline that shifts its shape as many times as the creatures it envisions. Surprising even for me, I felt that most dreaded of all reactions one can feel when watching a movie: boredom. I just couldn't get into the whole series of events, which seemed odd to me, considering that my admiration of movies like "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz" would almost guarantee a like reaction to this. Not so, though: as dazzled as I was by the animation process of "Spirited Away," I just could not bring myself to honestly say that I was sold on the storytelling. I appreciate the efforts and respect the craftsmanship with which the film has been produced, but I've seen it once, and that was twice enough for me.

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