My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away these are just a few amazing movies to come out of the company known as Studio Ghibli. Ghibli is an animation studio based in Koganei, Japan and founded by Hayao Miyazaki, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki. Now hold on a moment! A lot people are turned off by the films and shows coming out of Japan, but don’t worry the Wonderful World known as Disney has taken these movies and translated them to English, so no subtitles needed!

These films coming out of Studio Ghibli are for people of all ages, just because it could be considered a “cartoon” does not mean its only for children. A few are aimed more towards kids like My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo while others like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away have a bit more serious undertones. The plots of these movies can be just incredible, if I told you blatantly “A normal girl is cursed to be an old lady by a fat Witch so she becomes a cleaning woman for a very handsome wizard who does nothing but complain. She yells at him to quit acting like a child and protect them from the oncoming war. So, he turns into a giant bird and goes to save the day. OH! Also, they live in a giant moving castle and the best character to come from this movie is a sassy fire demon!” you might just think I am going crazy. I swear though once you see it, how the plot flows and the characters just fit perfectly. The art style of these movies are beautiful, Japanese animation is very different from American and I am always impressed with it. I

am by no means an animation expert, I’m just someone who love animation and loves this studio so much. If you’re an adult and willing to give this studio and their movies a try, I’d suggest Spirited Away a movie that won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated film. If you have a family with young children give My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service a try. Studio Ghibli puts so much heart into their films that you can’t help but smile and go along with all the amazing adventures.