“When asked by an interviewer whether the film includes unclean things along with fantasy, Miyazaki explained that ‘in the act of creating a fantasy, you open up the lid to parts of your brain that don’t usually open.’ These more subversive elements found when the director ‘lifted the lid’ of his unconscious make the film one of Miyazaki’s most powerful and protean works. ‘Spirited Away’ offers disturbing visions of excess, liberating moments of carnival, and a sharp critique of the materialism and toxicity of contemporary Japanese society through its complex vision of a quasi-nostalgic fantastic realm threatened by pollution from within and without.”