spirited away

Jeff and I went to see "Spirited Away" last night. I won't be giving away any major spoilers, but I will be discussing the movie later on in this Blathering, just to warn those who don't like hearing anything about movies they're looking forward to seeing.

Yesterday I went to local Running Room and picked up my run kit for this weekend's Run For The Cure. Since I've never been part of an event like this, I didn't know what a "run kit" was supposed to be. My run kit contained the follow: a Run For The Cure t-shirt, two paper signs, two safety pins. Both signs have the name of the event and the sponsors around the border. One sign has my participant number with a form on the back where I have to write my next, phone number, next of kin (it actually says "NEXT OF KIN"), other basic info to be assumedly used if I collapse in the middle of the event. The other sign has "I'M RUNNING FOR" across the top, and I've filled this in with "MY AUNT AGNES".

Jeff has registered and picked up his run kit, too! He's going to be walking fast with his long legs and I'll be running slowly with my short legs; ideally we'll be able to stick together the entire 5k route. Yes, I know 5k is nothing for you experienced runners out there, but is plenty for me. :-)

So Jeff and I went to see Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (or Sen to Chihiro) last night, and both of us enjoyed it, though we weren't blown away. I liked it more than Princess Mononoke, which I wasn't that crazy about. Spirited Away is more obviously geared toward children and left out much of the "preachiness" and dark violence I disliked in Mononoke.

The animation in Spirited Away was amazing, better than (IMHO) Mononoke or Totoro. The entire film was wonderful to watch. At times, though, I felt that as gorgeous as the animation was, some scenes tended to drag on a bit long, as if Miyazaki wanted to make sure everyone appreciated them fully. Or maybe I'm too used to Western animated films, where the plot moves fairly quickly.

I really liked the main character, Chihiro, the 10-year-old little girl. Miyazaki has always been great at animating human gestures and emotional subtleties, especially those of children. I got teary-eyed several times during the film, mainly because of how her character was reacting in certain scenes.

Though I enjoyed the movie, I still have to say that I enjoyed Totoro more, mainly because I found Totoro more consistent and integrated throughout. Neither Totoro nor Spirited away have complicated plotlines, but I thought Totoro pulled it off way better. I also found Totoro much more emotionally resonant, with characters I could really care about. Of course I sympathized with Chihiro, but there was something about the characters in Totoro that struck me as much more honest. I also didn't like some of the heavy-handed "this is an emotionally triumphant scene" music.

My favourite characters in Spirited Away:

-- the four-armed guy

-- "No-Face"

-- the Radish guy

-- the Stinky guy (before he got a bath)

-- the little sootball guys that reminded me a lot of the little sootball guys in Totoro

-- the mouse baby and the bird

This is not a movie for those who are looking for singing teapots or who don't particularly care about animation quality (there was a trailer for a new Pokemon movie whose animation looked incredibly crude when contrasted with Miyazaki's film). I think I'll go see this film again just for the atmosphere and animation as well as Miyazaki's incredible imagination. And then order the new Totoro DVD that is being released in December, woohoo!

Links/News:

Please consider sponsoring me for the CIBC Run For The Cure this Sunday, thanks.

One year ago, I talked about being interviewed by Canoe Jam!Showbiz. The article is still online, if you're curious.

Two years ago, I found out that my book was going to the printer's.

Three years ago, Patrick Stewart was filming "X-Men" across the street from our condo building.

Five years ago, I had breakfast with Andrea and Rand.

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Today's Blatherpic:

The Unknown Guitarist. This guy is a standard feature around here during warm summer evenings, and plays lounge lizard type music on a badly amplified electric guitar. It wouldn't be the same around here without him. Here he is last November (it looks like he's even wearing the same shoes). I took this photo as he was straightening his tie after he saw my camera. :-)