I first heard of this movie when it won the Best Animated Feature Film Award during the 75th Annual Academy Awards. And since I was already an anime fan, I had high hopes for this film. I didn't actually get to see this film until recently though. And unfortunately, it was not worth the wait.

The movie is based around a ten year old girl named Chihiro. She and her family are in the midst of moving to a new city. However, a near car accident on the way forces them onto an unplanned detour. There, they stumble upon a mysterious city, where everything seems active, but all the people are missing. While Chihiro's parents began eating food they found, Chihiro was bothered by this erie place and decided to look around instead. Soon, she learns that this is a magical city where various strange creatures gathered. But by then, it was too late to escape. Her parents had turned into animals, and she was trapped by rising waters.

At that moment, Chihiro meets Haku, a mysterious boy who help her avoid capture and instructs her how to get a job in the local bathhouse to remain safe. Due to having no other choice, Chihiro follows Haku's instructions and eventually meets Yubaba, the powerful and greedy owner of the bathhouse. Yubaba forces Chihiro to sign a contract which essentially enslaves Chihiro and steals her identity. Yubaba then puts Chihiro to work as an attendent for the patrons of the bathhouse.

In her new role, Chihiro meets a variety of odd and mythical creatures. She also encounters Haku again, and learns that he works for Yubaba as well. Chihiro and Haku gradually form a friendship, and Haku helps her get used to her new life. However, Chihiro still desparately wants to save her parents and escape back to the human world.

The general premise of the film has a lot of promise. However, I found myself unable to enjoy this movie. The main problem I had was that there was simply too many holes in the story. For example, what kind of place is this? Who or what is Haku? (He is later shown to have a non-human form in addition to his human one.) Why did a mysterious patron of the bathhouse single out Chihiro? I can appreciate leaving certain details to the imagination and interpretation of the audience. However, in this case, too much information is lacking. And because of this, it made it difficult for me to understand the characters or even the plot during the second half of the movie. And unfortunately, that in turn made it difficult for me to care about the story or its characters.

This film reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. Like Alice, Chihiro accidentally gets trapped in a mystical world where she encounters strange and magical creatures as she tries to find her way home. And also similar to Alice in Wonderland, Spirited Away is filled with symbolism, as represented by the various characters and events. However, I feel many of thes symbols are too subtle, and I had trouble interpretting them. So most of them were lost on me.

I know this a critically acclaimed film and a fan favorite, but I can not recommend this film even though I want to. Although this is obviously a very imaginative film, I couldn't fully understand the characters, plot, or symbolism presented. And that pretty much made it a disappointing movie going experience. Hopefully, you will have a better appreciation for this film than I did.