Spirited Away

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a moody ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, becomes trapped in an alternate reality that is inhabited by spirits and monsters. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape back to the human world. Miyazaki wrote the script after he decided the film would be based on his friend's ten-year-old daughter, who came to visit his house each summer.

Production of Spirited Away began in 2000. Pixar director John Lasseter, a fan of Miyazaki, was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to supervise an English-language translation for the film's North American release. When released, Spirited Away became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $274 million worldwide. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said the film is the "product of a fierce and fearless imagination whose creations are unlike any[thing a person has] seen before". It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards and is among the top ten on the British Film Institute's list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.