Spirited Away (2002)

The beloved cartoon that premiered back in 2005 finally arrived on Netflix. Avatar the Last Airbender is about a boy named Aang (Zack Tyler) who must master all four elements: water, earth, fire and air, in order to end a 100 year war. The world is divided into four nations, each with a corresponding element, and each based off of real cultures. The Water Tribe being Inuit, the Fire Nation being Japanese, the Earth Kingdom being Chinese, and the Air Nomads being Tibetan.

A majority of the population can manipulate, or “bend” the elements using variations of martial arts. One such individual called the Avatar can bend all these elements, and does so in order to bring balance to the world.

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the show ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon from February 2005 to July 2008. To this day, it’s still talked about due to its influence on not just kids, but adults too — especially those who grew up with the show.

So what makes this show memorable? Well, the characters for one thing. We got Aang, the 12 year old Avatar who’s first reluctant of his duty, but learns to grow confident through out the series. Aang isn’t alone though, he has Katara (Mae Whitman) and her brother, Sokka (Jack De Sena). Katara can bend water while Sokka can’t, but he has his trusty boomerang to prove his usefulness — and his sense of humor. We also got Toph (Michaela Jill Murphy) who joins the team later on, and despite being blind, she’s a powerful earthbender. She can sense vibrations in the ground, which gives her the ability to ‘see’ her surroundings.

Directed by renowned filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away is about a girl named Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi/Daveigh Chase) on a journey to rescue her parents who have been turned into pigs. Her family had mistakenly wandered into the spirit world, and it’s up for Chihiro to get them all out.

Despite being only 10 years old, Chihiro is a strong and well rounded protagonist. She does whatever it takes to save her parents, including working at a bathhouse run by a witch named Yubaba (Mari Natsuk, Suzanne Pleshette).

This is a beautifully animated film that not only won many awards, but won for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy. Funny enough, I actually didn’t like the film when I first saw it — I was eight and dumb. But years later, I gave the film another watch and it became one of my favorite films. Maybe I didn’t like it at first because it was just so strange and different compared to other films I’ve seen. It was the first foreign film I watched and it got me interested in Japanese animation.