* The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234
million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a
dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy
worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro
(voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) plunges into an
alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and
her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents
stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're
trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familia
-r boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from
Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works,
Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that
pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges
a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face,
and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba (Pleshette again). The resolve,
bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and
save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consumm
-ate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation.