IT'S SHAPING up to be a golden year for full length animated features.

Following the release of Sylvain Chomet's wildly inventive and darkly humorous Belleville Rendez-Vous and Pixar's Finding Nemo, we have the eagerly anticipated opening of Hayao Miyazaki's extraordinary magical adventure, which deservedly won the 2003 Academy Award as Best Animated Feature.

A young girl named Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase) and her parents (Michael Chiklis, Lauren Holly) get lost en route to their new home and find themselves at the gates of a long abandoned theme park.

Curiosity gets the better of Chihiro's mother and father, who begin exploring the park and stumble upon a food stall, laden with delicious smelling wares.

Despite their daughter's protestations, the parents tuck in and are gradually transformed into pigs by the enchanted food.

Chihiro runs for help, only to greeted by the terrifying sight of the spirits which inhabit the park, as they come out of hiding.

As twilight arrives, Chihiro seeks refuge in the nearby bathhouse where she befriends Prince Haku (Jason Marsden), the herb maker Kamaji (Ogden Stiers) and earns employment from the witch Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette).

Under the tutelage of kindly fellow worker Lin (Susan Egan), Chihiro befriends the spirits and creatures who visit the bathhouse, and learns valuable secrets which might break the spell that has enslaved her parents.

Spirited Away is a breath taking variation on a theme from Alice In Wonderland, following young Chihiro as she meets a menagerie of weird and wonderful characters, who both hinder and aid her quest.

The story constantly surprises, with daring plot twists and unexpected flights of surreal fancy, interspersed with gentle humour.

Rating: 10/10