Spirited Away

Spirited Away is a Japanese animated film released in 2001. Directed, written and produced by Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki.

Plot Summary
A young girl and her family move to a new house, but on their way they take a wrong turn and come upon the entrance to the Spirit Realm. With her mother and father transformed into pigs (and potential meals for the spirits), ten-year-old Chihiro must depend on the help of the inhabitants and workers of the Bathhouse, as well as her own courage, to survive, save her parents, and return to the human realm.

Awards
Spirited Away won an Oscar in 2003 for best animated feature, making it the first anime to ever win an Academy Award. Spirited Away also picked up a number of other awards around the world, including a Saturn Award.

Interesting Facts

 * Spirited Away was created without a script
 * The river spirit was inspired by Miyazaki’s experience cleaning a river
 * The characters' names reflect who they are
 * Boh means little boy or son,
 * Kamaji means old boiler man, Yubaba means bathhouse witch, and Zeniba means money witch. The heroine Chihiro means a thousand fathoms or searches, while her worker name, Sen, just means thousand.