One of the best scenes in all of film: Spirited Away's Train Scene

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite scenes in animation: The Train Scene in Hayao

Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

Spirited Away may be the single most famous animated film to ever come out of Japan.

The film was released on July 20th 2001, and became the most successful film in Japanese

history, grossing over $289 million worldwide.

It is the only hand drawn animated film to ever win an Academy Award for best animated

picture.

It routinely makes “Best Of” lists for anime, animation, and films in general.

For those of you who have never seen it….one, go watch it.

It really is worth your time.

Also, there will be some spoilers from here on out: But the story follows a young girl,

Chihiro, who accidentally stumbles into the spirit world when she and her parents get

lost on their way to their new house.

Her parents are transformed into pigs because they eat food meant for the spirits, and Chihiro

must work in the spirit bathhouse, making friends, and surviving until she can save

her parents and return home.

The movie is considered an anime classic, and it is easy to see why.

The animation is top notch, the music is ridiculously beautiful, the story is engaging.

It evokes Alice in Wonderland, coming of age themes alongside a critical look at capitalist

consumerism and western influence on Post-War Japan, themes of greed, of environmentalism,

of generational conflicts and economic anxiety and the role of young women in society.

And at the core of it, a ordinary girl on an extraordinary adventure.

When talking about developing the film, Miyazaki had this to say about Chihiro: “I created

a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathize.

It's not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something

already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances.

I want my young friends to live like that, and I think they, too, have such a wish.”

Spirited Away is not my favorite Ghibli film.

Princess Mononoke has had that place of honor since I was in middle school, but when I’m

trying to introduce someone to Ghibli films, especially non-Anime fans, Spirited Away is