Spirited Away

By far the most well-deserved Oscar of 2003, Hayao Miyazaki’s haunting anime was so far ahead of its competition in the Best Animated Feature category that it made them look like, well, cartoons. Indeed, there’s so much going on here it’s hard to absorb in one viewing. The ethereal and often weird plot follows Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl who becomes trapped in an otherworldly carnival where her parents turn in to pigs and a witch named Yubaba steals her name and puts her to hard labor. Like previous films My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke, there’s a strong current of environmentalism, most notably in the tragic figure of Okutaresama, a river god turned to walking sludge by pollution. But though it reflects its creator’s deeply felt moral views, this is no mere “message film.” Though the story’s simple enough to appeal to The Lion King’s core audience, Miyazaki’s surreal imagination and painstaking attention to detail make his work worthy of everyone’s attention.