Studio Ghibli

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Rating: ★★★★★
Oct 18, 2004Anime/Children Befriend Mysterious Creature
Possibly the most perfect of all Hayao Miyazaki’s anime, a work about childhood featuring an array of charmingly eccentric creatures. It is a film of absolutely magical charms beneath which lies a swim of adult emotions that children’s films rarely touch upon
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Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Rating: ★★★★★
Feb 23, 2008Anime/Young Witch's Adventures
One of the loveliest of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime, the story of a young witch who creates a parcel delivery service using her broomstick. As always, Miyazaki gives the film a simple beauty and an adult emotional complexity
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Porco Rosso (1992)

Porco Rosso (1992)
Rating: ★★★★
Sep 14, 2004Anime/Talking Pig Aviator
Hayao Miyazaki in a more whimsical comedic mood with this story of the adventures of a talking pig aviator. Even when in a lighter vein, Miyazaki cannot help but fill the film with images of charm and considerable beauty
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Pom Poko (1994)

Pom Poko (1994)
Rating: ★★★★
Apr 11, 2005Anime/Raccoons Declare War on Humanity
Delightful and charming Studio Ghibli film about shape-changing raccoons that blend with humanity when their forest is threatened
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Spirited Away (2001)

Spirited Away (2001)
Rating: ★★★★★
Apr 12, 2002Anime/Afterlife Bathhouse
One of the masterpieces of Hayao Miyazaki, a gentle, beautiful work of anime set in an afterlife bathhouse where Miyazaki's range of extraordinary creatures and quiet tenderness finds something that Western fantasy rarely ever comes near
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The Cat Returns (2002)

The Cat Returns (2002)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 25, 2004Anime/Girl's Adventure in the World of Cats
Studio Ghibli anime in which a girl saves the life of a cat only to be drawn into a world of cats where a cat prince decides she will be his bride
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Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Rating: ★★★★
Jan 7, 2006Anime/Epic Fantasy
This Hayao Miyazaki film about a girl who becomes assistant to a mysterious magician is not quite in the same league as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away but has the sublime beauty, eccentric characters and tender charms that all his work does
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Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea (2008)

Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea (2008)
Rating: ★★★
Aug 13, 2009Anime/Fish Girl Becomes Human
Probably the least great of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. The plot feels recycled from The Little Mermaid while Miyazaki’s recurrent themes seem more perfunctory and the film lacks many of the beautiful contrasts of epic and fragile he specialises in
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Arrietty (2010)

Arrietty (2010)
Rating: ★★★★
Nov 3, 2011Anime/Miniature People Adventures
Studio Ghibli tackle Mary Norton's classic books about a miniature family that live inside the walls of a house. Norton's essential Englishness translates surprisingly well to anime and the results are quite magical
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The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Rating: ★★★
Oct 3, 2014Anime/Japanese Fairytale
Studio Ghibli adaptation of a classic Japanese folktale from Hayao Hiyazaki's mentor Isao Takahata. This is a slower, very different film than Hayao Miyazaki's, the animation designed like a traditional Japanese woodprint. Never quite soars like Miyazaki's films do but not without its charms
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When Marnie Was There (2014)

When Marnie Was There (2014)
Rating: ★★★
Jun 14, 2015Anime/Ghost Story
A ghost story from Studio Ghibli – although rather than any Western equivalent that sets out to scare the pants off us, this is a sweetly tender story of friendship between two girls. The result more than capably approaches some of Hayao Miyazaki's best
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The Red Turtle (2016)

The Red Turtle (2016)
Rating: ★★½
Oct 10, 2016Animation/Castaway Befriends Turtle Woman
Studio Ghibli's first ever international co-production. A desert island castaway fantasy, this makes interesting comparison to the recent Robinson Crusoe/The Wild Life, even if both films are poles apart in style. This is dialogueless, spare and contained with a minimalism of plot and drama
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The Boy and the Heron (2023)

The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 5, 2024Anime/Boy Enters Otherworld
The twelfth film from Hayao Miyzaki at age 82, a quasi-autobiographical if a slightly less classic work. A renaissance of many Miyazaki themes as a boy follows a heron though into a strange fantasy otherworld
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