Spirited Away is weird, but once you realize that this is essentially an eastern take on Alice In Wonderland, boy is it fun. The film was animated by Hayao Miyazaki, frequently called the world's best animator. I don't know if I'd go that far, but the man is certainly a master. There is a lot of the surreal in Spirited Away, and I don't know that I ever understood the rules of the world. But, unexpectedly, this does not stop almost every last scene from being tense, wondrous, cute, or frightening. It says something that a scene involving the bathing of a very muddy creature carries powerful dramatic import and even suspense -- and then social import as well, once it is realized what the creature is.