Ghibli films widened our perspective of the world, serving as a bridge between childhood and adolescence. While Ghibli films opened the doors to the grown-up world when we were kids, they remind us of our innocence and childhood as adults.
The same is true of the movement of the characters. Because animation drawn by hand must utilize the ambience of a scene including score and dialogue as well as clear expressions to convey feeling, Ghibli is often able to deliver powerful emotional value within their films and characters.
A huge selling point of Studio Ghibli films is their romanticised representations of everyday life. The audience can see Japanese food, customs, and locations all beautifully visualised.
Studio Ghibli's visuals are hand-painted by Hayao Miyazaki himself. He produce films using traditional animation techniques, with meticulous attention to detail, such as gravity, shadows, scale, and textures that are felt by the audience.
Scenes like the one from Ponyo where Sōsuke meets Ponyo for the first time are raw and eager, allowing us to peek into the rich inner worlds of even the littlest children. Studio Ghibli films take such care with their characters, showing us that we truly pay attention to the things we love.
Why The Wind Rises is The BEST Studio Ghibli Movie.
Why do girls like Studio Ghibli?
These movies are imbued with musical cues and often tackle adult themes as they follow the mostly female protagonists in their adventures. To me, what makes Ghibli so special is that it presents us with stories about girls — real girls. Miyazaki's heroines are not beautified, wide eyed, sweet-smiled Disney concoctions.
Sophie has a degree of that same insecurity, and later Sophie throws her head back and cries in the rain, saying that she never once felt beautiful. The shattered look on her face after she'd weathered through so much with the old curse really tugs at viewers' heartstrings.
In contrast, Disney films often rely on more formulaic storytelling, with a clear hero and villain, and a clear-cut conflict that is resolved by the end of the film. While Disney films can be entertaining and enjoyable, they often lack the depth and complexity that Studio Ghibli films possess.
“Ghibli” to so many Japanese means nothing less than their childhood. Each Ghibli film is a story around the growth of a girl who is positive, honest, brave, caring, and energetic that many of us are once were. Personally, I can strongly relate to these three films.
To draw any meaningful conclusions from this research, it is first important to explicitly acknowledge that the intended audience for Ghibli films is children.
There is no way to deny that Grave of the Fireflies is one of the most gut-wrenching and haunting animated movies about World War II, which is why it is often considered the saddest Studio Ghibli movie of all time.
Among the studio's highest-grossing films are Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008) and The Boy and the Heron (2023).
It is possible for wondrous encounters and beautiful things to exist.” Another reason I believe Studio Ghibli films touch adult viewers is that they remind us what's important in life. As a kid, you just instinctively know that beautiful things and wondrous encounters are important.
In 2013, Disney declined to distribute Studio Ghibli's then recent film From Up on Poppy Hill in North America due to finding the movie's plot line too mature for their tastes (they still distributed the film in Taiwan, France, and Japan home media), and instead sold the film to GKIDS for distribution both theatrically ...
For example, certain Studio Ghibli films were distributed by Disney internationally but never owned by the company. Also, Miramax, an independently operating unit of the Walt Disney Studios, also purchased US rights to foreign animated movies.
For several decades, Studio Ghibli has become the pioneering company for animation and cemented itself as a beloved part of American cinema. Classics like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle — just to name a few — have grown into pieces of legendary iconography for fans of many ages.
Howl, who the rest of the country perceives as a devious womanizer eating the hearts of young maidens, falls in love with Sophie's empathy and her kindness.
While I was looking for a screenshot of Howl's Moving Castle, I stumbled across the same question spread over the internet: “Why is Sophie's hair still silver at the end?” I was surprised that the answer most readily given was, “because she still has the curse.”
Everyone has had a bad hair day. However, few people gave up on life over an easily fixable mistake. Thanks to Sophie's cleaning, Howl's potions got mixed around, leading his hair to change from blond to ginger. Howl accuses Sophie of ruining him and proceeds to throw a tantrum as his hair changes to black.
The name "Ghibli" was chosen by Miyazaki from the Italian noun ghibli (also used in English), based on the Libyan Arabic name for hot desert wind (قبلي, 'ghiblī'), the idea being that the studio would "blow a new wind through the anime industry".
Although Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, the co-founders of Studio Ghibli, drew inspiration from diverse sources such as literature, folklore, and their own personal experiences, there's no direct evidence indicating that Hasui Kawase specifically inspired Studio Ghibli as a whole.
