Spirited Away (2001)
Beyond the tunnel was a mysterious town.
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.
| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 20 July 2001 |
| Genre | Animation, Family, Fantasy |
| Director | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Starring | Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino and Mari Natsuki |
| Runtime | 125 min |
| Rated | PG |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 8.6/10 · Anime-Planet 4.433/5 · Metacritic 96/100 · Rotten Tomatoes 96% · IMDb 8.6/10 · TMDB users 8.5/10 |
| Box office | $356 million worldwide |
Where to watch Spirited Away
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What kind of watch this is
Miyazaki builds a world where the rules shift every time you look away. It is 125 minutes of a girl navigating a strange new world of spirits, which is a strange place to lose your name. The animation is dense, not in a cluttered way, but in a way that demands you keep up. Chihiro’s fear feels genuine because the stakes are absurd. She is small against a giant, shifting architecture of spirits. The film trusts your eyes to find the path. It does not explain the magic; it just lets you walk through it. You will notice things on the second pass that hid in plain sight the first.
What the critics said
Critics did not merely like it; they worshipped it. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 96% approval rating as of January 2026, while Metacritic sits at a 96 Metascore, signaling universal acclaim. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it four stars, calling it one of "the year's best films." Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times praised the animation, noting that Miyazaki's "movies are as much about moodiness as mood." The consensus describes it as a "dazzling, enchanting" fairy tale. It is rare for a film to be this universally adored, and rarer still for the praise to be this specific.
How it did with audiences
Spirited Away took in $356 million worldwide. That includes just $14 million from the United States. The rest came from everywhere else. On TMDB, users rate it 8.5 out of 10. IMDb users, using a weighted average, give it 8.6 out of 10 as of March 2026. The numbers are close, but the geography is not.
Awards
The film took home 5 awards from 2 nominations. That ratio is unusual. The Academy awarded Best Animated Feature to Hayao Miyazaki in 2003. It also won the Golden Bear in 2002. The Annie, Critics' Choice, and Animation Kobe awards followed in 2001 and 2002.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Spirited Away.
Sources
- Spirited Away on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q155653 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Spirited Away” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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