So I just watched Miyazaki's masterpiece Spirited Away again, and it's as enjoyable as it was when I saw it back in 2003.  This is the first time I'm watching the John Lasseter produced English dub, and I think they did a stellar job.  Chihiro sounds spot on, as does Kamajii and Yubaba.  Lin, especially, sounds pitch-perfect as her bossy, sarcastic self.

I've got a renewed appreciation for the music, too.  I'm surprised I never picked up the soundtrack.  To the Joe Hisaishi fans here (I'm looking at you, jb. ^_^), how would personally rate the score with the rest of his works?

Oh, and course, No Face still rules the goddamned universe.

I still consider Spirited Away as Miyazaki's best movie. Everything about it is enthralling, but what I think is the best is the general mood: it really feels like it's a dream, and I love this kind of feeling.

I've seen a level inspired by the movie in LittleBigPlanet, it was so well done that it made me want to watch the movie again! Unfortunately, I don't have the DVD with me now.

I love the Spirited Away music.  It's one of the better Ghibli scores in my opinion, perhaps just because it's less electronic (read: Nausicaa, Laputa) and more orchestrated instrumentation.  It also fits extremely well with the imagery and scenery in the movie.  I actually have seen the dub, granted it was a long long long time ago, but it was good nonetheless.  I was surprised by it, mostly because I thought I was going to see the subtitled version and then heard English.  It doesn't really have a big billed voice actor cast to go with it, like Princess Mononke and Howl's Moving Castle have.. except maybe Michael Chiklis from FX's "The Shield" and maybe Daveigh Chase (Lilo from "Lilo & Stitch") (although I don't know which came first, the English dubbing or "Lilo & Stitch").

It's hard to rate the music used in Spirited Away against all other Ghibli works because there's such a varying degree of age and type.  You have his 80s works, which are all highly synthesized (Nausicaa, Laputa) but have absolutely amazing orchestrated scores.  You have what some may argue are his most memorable scores with the simplest melodies in Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.  And you also have his heavily orchestrated, overly bombastic scores of late (Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle).  I like to think Spirited Away has a mix of all those, to an extent.  Easily the most approachable soundtrack to listen to, and as you watch the movie the most identifiable.

In any event, it had a US marketing release so you can easily buy it at any major music venue of your choice, and I think you can even buy it on iTunes if that's your thing.  There have been a couple of the pieces used in live performances and piano collections (Sixth Station, among others) which I'm sure I can dig up if I thumb through my cds if you're interested.

Howl's Moving Castle you might also enjoy.  It is a little bit heavier and darker, but still an overall good score.  It contains and abundance of brass instrumentation which isn't particularly my thing, but it fits the mood of the movie very well.  His latest film, Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on a Cliff) is more on the Totoro side of things: simple melodies and fanciful tunes of sort. I think I read the film was mostly made for children, which would fit, but I could be wrong.

I could go on, but this is a thread about Spirited Away and not Joe Hisaishi, so continue and enjoy .

I've long thought of Spirited Away as my favorite Miyazaki movie, but I never really noticed the music very much.  I'll have to pay closer attention to it when I watch it again.  I could also listen to the soundtrack album I own.

I'm no expert on Joe Hisaishi, but even though I own a surprising amount of his Miyazaki-related albums (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä), Nausicaä is the only one I like a great deal.  I love the mix of synth and orchestra and the main theme is far and away my favorite of what I've heard from Hisaishi's work on Miyazaki's other movies.  It seems like everything after Nausicaä, although certainly good, might be too subtle.  I know that's not the most technical assessment of the merits of his music from film to film, but there you have it.

In my honest opinion, Hayao Miyazaki's best work must be something he's done in 80s (Or the original manga Nausicaä which's far and away, my favorite manga of all time alongside of FSS). I couldn't really have got into his recent movies like a boy suffers from something unexplained -> heroine solves it in an unexplained way -> happy end! (Spirited Away, Hawl) or just a pale imitation of manga Nausicaä (Mononoke). The same applies for Joe Hisaishi. His recent score has too much fillers, or lacks any dramatic and emotional value. It would work fine for the cinematic purpose, but still. Outside of anime, Kikujiro might be my fav.

Oddly enough, the first 10 minutes or so of Spirited Away is in my opinion one of the most wrongly scored scenes I've ever seen (though the music itself is great). It's very bizzare and doesn't fit in the least.
The rest of the movie is great....but the main theme (the up-down motif) seems to take more than a bit of inspiration from Sibelius's 5th Symphony...

agreed. First ten minutes are...weird. The rest is awesome.

dubble post!

Chihiro: "I'm dreaming I'm dreaming!"

Such a poorly delivered line, and they even used it in advertisements/trailers. What were they thinking?

Other than a few little nagging moments (like the one I just mentioned), I agree that Lasseter got some good English voices. Interestingly enough, I'm also a big fan of the English Totoro, with Dakota Fanning and her little sister. That went really well IMO.

I've seen (parts of) this movie more times than I care, because it was the main subject of a course on Anime Translation I took at Osaka University. They added some stuff that wasn't in the original, most importantly the final monologue by Chihiro.
The English version is a bit more preachy and sappy than the Japanese one too.

It's funny to know that in a survey amongst Japanese and English viewers of the movie, Lin rates as one of the most likeable characters (likeable being the key phrase here, I don't mean as an anime character, but as a real person) in Japan, but as one of the most bossy and annoying ones in English.

The Japanese Lin is strict, but more like a big sister than a boss.
Adversely, Chihiro's mom was considered to be one of the least likeable characters in the original.