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Amphibians in Movies   Spirited Away (2001)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This is a Japanese Anime written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki that won the Oscar for best animated feature. After her parents are turned into pigs, a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro bercomes stranded in a town inhabited by all sorts of strange demons and spirits. A young boy she meets tells her she is in danger and that the only way to avoid getting turned into a pig is for her to get a job. He sends her to a bathhouse that caters to the spirits that is owned by an evil witch named Yubaba. Chihiro goes to the bathhouse to ask Kamaji, who operates the boiler that heats the water for the baths with his many arms, for a job. He tells her he can't help, that she must go to the owner Yubaba. A teenage girl spirit named Lin brings Kamaji his lunch and complains that he has a human with him. He tells her Chihiro is his granddaughter and asks Lin to take Chihiro to Yubaba. Lin refuses, saying she doesn't want to risk her life. Kamaji bribes her with a roasted newt, which is obviously a special treat that she thinks is worth risking her life for. Lin takes the newt and brings Chihiro through the bathhouse and up the elevators to Yubaba. On the way they are stopped by Frog, the bathhouse foreman, who smells Chihiro because she is a human, but doesn't see her. He accuses Lin of smelling suspicious and hiding something but she confuses him by pulling out the roasted newt. He is so hungry for a bite of the tasty delicacy that he begs Lin to let him eat just a leg or even to let him suck on the tail, but she eats the whole thing in front of him. The distraction is enough to allow Chihiro to escape and go upstairs to see Yubaba. Many newts are poisonous and would not make good snack food. As far as I can determine, roasted newt is not something that is eaten in Japan or anywhere else outside of the world of Spirited Away. It's used here only as a very desirable commodity. Food and greed are used in the movie elsewhere, too. Gluttony is what got Chihiro's parents turned into pigs.