SPIRITED AWAY (blu-ray+dvd) *NEW* and 12 similar items

Brand new factory sealed blu-ray dvd combo set is no longer being manufactured and will soon be unavailable. I begin with reassurances: It has been flawlessly dubbed into English by John Lasseter ('Toy Story'), it was co-winner of the Berlin Film Festival against "regular" movies, it passed 'Titanic' to become the top-grossing film in Japanese history, and it is the first film to make more than $200 million before coming to America. It has been compared to 'Alice in Wonderland', and indeed it tells of a girl who wanders into a world of strange creatures and illogical rules. SPIRITED AWAY is told through the eyes of Chihiro (Daveigh Chase), a ten-year-old girl. She's on a trip with her parents, and her father unwisely takes the family to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what he speculates to be an abandoned theme park; but the food stalls seem to be functioning, and as Chihiro's parents settle down for a free meal, she wanders away and comes upon the film's version of Wonderland, which is a towering bathhouse. A boy named Haku appears as her guide, and warns her that the sorceress who runs the bathhouse, named Yubaba, will try to steal her name and thus her identity. Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette) is an old crone with a huge face and dotes on a grotesquely huge baby named Bou. Omniously, she renames Chihiro, who wanders through the structure, which is populated by little balls of dust that scurry and scamper underfoot. In the innnards of the structure, Chihiro comes upon the boiler room, operated by a man named Kamaji (David Ogden Stiers), who is dressed in a formal coat and has eight limbs, which he employs in a bewildering variety of ways. At first he seems as fearsome as the world he occupies, but he has a good side, is no friend of Yubaba, and perceives Chihiro's goodness. Okutaresama is the character with the most urgent message. He is the spirit of the river, and his body has absorbed the junk, waste, and sludge that has been thrown into it over the years. At one point he actually yields up a discrded bicycle. Japanese myths often use shape-shifting, in which bodies reveal themselves as facades concealing a deeper reality. Most alarming for Chihiro, she finds that her parents have turned into pigs after gobbling up the free lunch. Okutaresema reveals its true nature after being freed of decades of sludge and discarded household items. Haku is much more than he seems. Indeed, the entire bathhouse seems to be under spells affecting the appearance and nature of its inhabitants... Miyazaki's drawing style is a pleasure to regard with its subtle use of colors, clear lines, rich detail, and its realistic depiction of fantastical elements.