Review by C.J. Bunce
Storybook adaptations of movies have been around a long time, successful as Gold Key comics, and exploding in popularity with Disney animated movies. My own first encounter was via a boxed set of storybooks based on the original Star Wars trilogy–the kind of thing you ordered in the early 1980s via newsprint book orders in school. VIZ Media’s successful line of great storybooks based on Studio Ghibli classics have included tie-ins for The Secret World of Arrietty here and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind here. The latest we’re reviewing is for the most celebrated of the studio’s creations.
With Spirited Away, director Hayao Miyazaki transported Japanese anime into the mainstream consciousness in the United States. A dramatic fantasy story with gravitas and an incredible journey, Spirited Away would win the Oscar for Best Animated Film–Miyazaki’s only Oscar (except his lifetime honorary Oscar). A modern fable in the classic tradition, the film introduced audiences to Chihiro Ogino, a brave ten-year-old girl not happy with her parents moving her into a new neighborhood. But when she wanders off, she finds herself trapped in a world of spirits, beasts, and uniquely imaginative surprises. Wondrous, curious, and even grotesque, Spirited Away has something for everybody. VIZ Media’s Miyazaki’s Spirited Away Picture Book is the next best thing to the movie, a return trip to a special, magical world that is now streaming on Max. The book is available now here at Amazon.
Spirited Away is not just any other movie. Like Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, the film transcends the typical use of animated cinema, providing the kind of experience that will leave audiences discussing it long afterward. Critics across the globe lined up in agreement–not only was it the highest grossing film in Japan’s history, the critical acclaim seems to know no end. In 2016 it was listed as the fourth best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 international film critics. The New York Times called it the second best film of the century so far.
Spirited Away follows the brave young girl who enters a spirit world to rescue her parents and herself. It is an incredible fantasy, with dark undertones about real-world concerns including human greed, borrowing from classic children’s stories Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Pinocchio. It offers spectacular characters and is a story of great courage.
Miyazaki’s Spirited Away Picture Book takes Miyazaki’s story and artwork and necessarily pares it back to its key, critical components, all while preserving the compassionate story and tense circumstances. All adaptations and certainly this type of storybook must strike some kind of balance from the adapted work and a medium without sound and the moving image. The book begins with a cast of characters, to familiarize those young readers who are completely new to the tale.
In many ways all of Miyazaki’s films are a stitching together of frames–single frozen screen images that stand alone as works of art in their own right. It’s likely this is the reason books like this are able to capture so much of the magic of the original.
Presented in a colorful hardcover inside an equally attractive jacket, Miyazaki’s Spirited Away Picture Book is a fun and worthy tribute to such an important movie, something young readers will certainly treasure. Long in print as a celebration of the film, get your copy now here direct from VIZ Media or here at Amazon. Catch Spirited Away and several other Studio Ghibli titles now streaming on Max.
