Press play when you start the movie. These notes follow along, minute by minute. Questions to think about are at the end.
Hayao Miyazaki based her on the 10-year-old daughter of his friend Seiji Okuda, who visited his house every summer. He wanted to make a film for girls her age.
Source · Midnight Eye interview with Hayao Miyazaki (2001)This was the first Miyazaki film where a child character was voiced by a child. Rumi Hiiragi was about 13 when she recorded it.
Source · IMDb triviaThe title is Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. Read together, "sen to" sounds like sento, the Japanese word for a public bathhouse, where most of the film happens.
Source · IMDb triviaJohn Lasseter of Pixar oversaw the English dub. He added small bits of dialogue to explain things a Japanese audience would already know, like what a bathhouse is.
Source · IMDb triviaChihiro's father drives fast and confidently down a road he doesn't know. It tells you a lot about him before he says much.
Source · IMDb triviaMany were built in the late 1980s and early 1990s, then failed after Japan's economic bubble burst. Miyazaki uses one as the door into the spirit world.
Source · The Park Database: The Japanese Theme Park BubbleThey assume they can pay for it later. Miyazaki has spoken about greed in Japan's boom years, and this is where the story first shows it.
Source · SoraNews24: Studio Ghibli letter sheds new light on Spirited Away mysteries (2016)Yasuko Sawaguchi, who voices Chihiro's mother in Japanese, ate fried chicken while saying her lines. Lauren Holly did the same in English with an apple.
Source · IMDb triviaMiyazaki has said many old bathhouses went into it, with no single model. Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama, one of Japan's oldest, is often named as one of them.
Source · Japan Ryokan Guide (citing Studio Ghibli's 2003 diary)Miyazaki worked out the story as he drew the storyboards, after animation had already started. That is how a character like No-Face could take on a bigger part along the way.
Source · Midnight Eye interview with Hayao Miyazaki (2001)Miyazaki brought them back from his 1988 film to work for Kamaji, the six-armed boiler man.
Source · Slashfilm: The many spirits of Spirited Away explainedThey're called konpeito, a sugar candy that has been made in Japan for centuries.
Source · IMDb triviaShe keeps just one character, 千, and calls her Sen. In this world, losing your name means losing yourself.
Source · IMDb triviaHe has said he once helped clean a polluted river and pulled a bicycle out of it, just like the bathhouse workers do here.
Source · Midnight Eye interview with Hayao Miyazaki (2001)The river spirit gives Chihiro an emetic, something that causes vomiting. Doctors still use emetics today, for example when someone swallows poison.
Source · IMDb triviaChihiro is the only one who says no. The more No-Face is given, the bigger and hungrier he gets.
Miyazaki had them watch a vet hold a dog's lower jaw while giving it treats, to get the dragon's mouth right.
Source · IMDb triviaIt's a Japanese good-luck gesture made with linked fingers and a chopping motion. People do it after touching something seen as unclean.
Source · IMDb triviaThere's almost no dialogue for several minutes. Joe Hisaishi's music carries the scene.
Mari Natsuki plays both sisters in Japanese. Suzanne Pleshette plays both in the English version.
Source · IMDb full cast and crewThe river was filled in and paved over to build apartments. Chihiro remembers falling into it as a small child.
It won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003. Miyazaki didn't attend the ceremony, in protest of the war in Iraq.
Source · Hollywood Reporter: Demon Slayer overtakes Spirited Away (2020)"Always With Me" was meant for another Miyazaki project. He played it over and over while making this film and decided to use it here.
Source · IMDb triviaIt was the first film to pass that mark before a U.S. release.
Source · IMDb triviaQuestions to think about on your own, or to talk through with whoever you watched with.
Chihiro's parents take what isn't theirs and turn into pigs. Where do you see that kind of greed today?
Yubaba takes Chihiro's name to control her. What parts of your name or story have you had to hold on to?
Chihiro is the only one who turns down No-Face's gold. What makes it hard to say no when everyone else says yes?
Times are matched to the film's subtitles, so they may be off by a minute on some versions. Each note links to its source. Still images will come from the studio's press materials.