15th Anniversary Screening of ‘Spirited Away’

{All images copyright Studio Ghibli, and used courtesy Fathom Events.}

Note: this article was also published on SciFi4Me.com.

Time sure flies when you’re in another world. It’s been fifteen years since the critically acclaimed Spirited Away hit the screens, and they’re celebrating with a special screening. In partnership with Fathom Events, more than 400 theatres across the United States will be screening the movie on December 4 and 5. As is now standard with Fathom Events partnerships, there will also be extra material: the short film “Ghiblies: Episode 2”, never before released in North America, will follow the screening.

Spirited Away is the story of Chihiro, a ten-year-old who is not happy that the family is moving. When the family decides to take a break, they investigate a nearby entryway that leads them into the spirit world. The parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, leading Chihiro on a journey working in the witch’s bathhouse in an attempt to free them and get them all back into the human world.

Pixar’s John Lasseter was a big proponent of the film, and was the one that got Walt Disney Pictures to do the English translated version. It not only won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, it became the most financially successful film in Japanese history. In 2016, it was voted #4 on the list of the 21st Century’s 100 greatest films according to the BBC.

The December 4 version will be the dubbed version, while the December 5 will be subtitled. For tickets and more information on the screening (including a list of theatres screening it), visit Fathom Events.