Get ‘Spirited Away’ - yet again - on the big screen

Above : “Spirited Away” opens today at selected area theaters. (Photo/Walt Disney Studios)

One of the good things about anime movies is that you can watch them anywhere. At home on your TV, on your laptop or tablet – even, if you’re desperate enough, on your smart phone.

Yet nothing beats watching a good anime film, especially one made by Studio Ghibli , on a big screen. That way you get to experience the full richness of the imagery as it was intended.

And that opportunity will be offered beginning today at three area theaters, Village Centre Cinemas Wandermere , Village Centre Cinemas Airway Heights and Regal’s Coeur d’Alene Riverstone Stadium.

Furthermore, the movie that both theaters will feature is only one of the best ever made: the Oscar-winning 2001 film “Spirited Away.”

I’ve written a lot about this film in the past. Written and directed by the great Hayao Miyazaki , it is a blend of fantasy and family drama about a young girl’s having to save her parents from a spell that has changed them into beasts.

The late Roger Ebert wrote that the film “has been compared to ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and indeed it tells of a 10-year-old girl who wanders into a world of strange creatures and illogical rules. But it’s enchanting and delightful in its own way, and has a good heart.”

I couldn’t agree more. “Spirited Away” is available in a range of formats. But even in a dubbed version, it plays the best on a big screen.