Spirited Away

Spirited Away
Original Title	Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (千と千尋の神隠し)
Original Language	Japanese
Dubbing Studio	Buena Vista Sound Services
Voice Director	Kirk Wise
Translation & Adaptation	Jim Hubbert Linda Hoaglund Cindy Davis Hewitt Donald H. Hewitt
Recorded	2002
Dub Country	United States
Original Country	Japan
Year	2001

Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. It was originally released in Japan on July 27, 2001.

The English-language adaptation was released on September 20, 2002. Acclaimed by international critics, the film is often considered amongst the greatest animated films of all-time and it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards and the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.

Synopsis 10 year-old Chihiro and her parents are riding along during a family outing through the countryside when they stumble across an amusement park that has seemingly been abandoned for years. Despite Chihiro's premonitions about the creepy setting, her parents explore the area and eventually discover and indulge in an empty eatery filled with fresh food. As a result of their unfaithfulness, they are magically turned into pigs, which in turn scares away Chihiro. She meets the enigmatic Haku, who explains to her that this land is actually a magical bath house, a kind of holiday resort, where supernatural beings seek comfort away from the earthly realm and she must work here, as laziness is not permitted, to free both herself and her parents from the mystical land.

Cast

Image	Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor
	Chihiro Ogino / Sen	Rumi Hiiragi	Daveigh Chase
	Haku	Miyu Irino	Jason Marsden
	Yubaba	Mari Natsuki	Suzanne Pleshette
	Zeniba
	Lin	Yumi Tamai	Susan Egan
	Kamaji	Bunta Sugawara	David Ogden Stiers
	Akio Ogino	Takashi Naitō	Michael Chiklis
	Yūgo Ogino	Yasuko Sawaguchi	Lauren Holly
	Boh	Ryūnosuke Kamiki	Tara Strong
	No-Face	Akio Nakamura	Bob Bergen
	Aniyaku	Takehiko Ono	John Ratzenberger
	Chichiyaku	Tsunehiko Kamijo	Paul Eiding
	Bandaigaeru	Yō Ōizumi	Rodger Bumpass
	River Spirit	Koba Hayashi	Jim Ward
	Aogaeru	Tatsuya Gashuin	Bob Bergen

Additional Voices

• Jack Angel - Radish Spirit
• Dee Bradley Baker
• Rodger Bumpass
• Jennifer Darling
• Sherry Lynn
• Mona Marshall
• Mickie McGowan - Bath House Woman
• Candi Milo
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey
• Philip Proctor - Frog-like Chef

Notes

• Executive Producer John Lasseter of Pixar supervised the English-language dubbing of the film and tried to match the actors' English-language dialog with the mouth movements of the animated characters.
• This was the final film role of actress Suzanne Pleshette before she retired in 2004. She later passed away in 2008.
• Daveigh Chase (Chihiro) and David Ogden Stiers (Kamaji) also co-starred together in Lilo and Stitch (as Lilo and Jumba respectively).
  • Other co-stars reuniting also include Jason Marsden (Haku) and Suzanne Pleshette (Yubaba & Zeniba) who voiced Kovu and Zira respectively in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
• In the English-language version, John Ratzenberger (Aniyaku) completely improvised the ditty he sings when he is extolling the virtues of the rich customer No-Face ("Welcome the rich man, he's hard for you to miss..."). The original script's song was "Welcome the rich man! He's plenty big, you see/so all bow low and get on bended knee."

Transmission

Date(s)	Channel	Country
2006	Turner Classic Movies	United States

Video Releases

Distributor	Year	Format	Region	Country
Buena Vista Home Entertainment	2003		NTSC	United States
			1 NTSC
Optimum Releasing	2004		2 PAL	United Kingdom
	2006
	2014		B DVB-T
Buena Vista Home Entertainment	2015		A DVB-T	United States
GKIDS	2017
	2020

External Links

• Spirited Away at the Internet Movie Database
• Spirited Away (anime) at the Anime News Network