I had forgotten how unlikeable Chihiro's parents are in this movie. It is hard to imagine what compelled her to go through so much in order to try to save her parents since I don't think there is any scene in which they seem to be good parents during the whole runtime. Even at the end of the movie after Chihiro has saved them and they are leaving, they are still getting annoyed with her.

I was in the theater with a couple irl folks and one of them afterwards was talking about how Yubaba isn't exactly evil in the traditional villain sense, and felt more like an exploitative capitalist. Thinking about this some more, I think that she certainly does evil things, like taking peoples' names, stealing things (like the seal from her sister), and essentially imprisoning her child. So, I think that we are supposed to see her as evil. However, the movie leaves you with a much warmer impression of her than it started with. She lets Haku pressure her into giving Sen a chance to save herself and her parents. She also seems to be truly welcoming of having her baby home after it has returned. She then lives up to her end of the agreement.

My favorite part of this movie upon rewatching it is Chihiro's escape from the bathhouse and her trip to Zeniba's house. The movie up to that point felt quite hectic in my opinion. It is Chihiro (then Sen) reacting to all the strange things happening around her. She finds herself suddenly thrust into an alien world surrounded by danger and is fighting to survive. She begins to assert herself in the movie when she deals with the polluted river spirit. However, I didn't feel like she had taken charge of her own destiny until she decided to save Haku and travel to Zeniba...then ultimately her escape following her return to the bathhouse.