Studio Ghibli is a very popular Japanese animation studio established on June 15, 1985. They have produced movies such as “Spirited Away” which ranks #32 and “Howl’s Moving Castle” which ranks #158 on IMDb’s top 250. Ghibli’s movies promote female protagonists and strong messages.
Ghibli has teamed up with Walt Disney Productions to distribute and redub some of the original Ghibli films. Disney has the rights for international distribution of the films. Disney and Ghibli are similar with the differences of Ghibli’s symbolism and depth while Disney has more suspenseful plot and pure entertainment. But that doesn’t mean Ghibli doesn’t produce films with more suspenseful plots. In my opinion, Disney films are slightly predictable while I couldn’t predict what could happen in the Ghibli films.
Studio Ghibli has a famous Japanese composer named Joe Hisaishi who has composed pieces like “One Summers Day” from “Spirited Away” and “Merry-Go-Round of Life” from “Howl’s Moving Castle.” These films are wonderfully animated and brilliantly put together. All movies are hand-drawn with little to no CGI. All but two of the films have high percentages on Rotten Tomatoes ranging from 78% to 100%. The same goes for Metacritic ratings which range from 70 up to 96. In the opinion of those who’ve rated these films, the number one Studio Ghibli is “Grave of the Fireflies” released in 1988. If you’re interested, everyone’s least favorite film is “Earwig and the Witch” released in 2020.
Studio Ghibli films can be watched on [HBO] Max in both their subbed and dubbed form. Another website you can watch them on is Amazon where you can rent them for $4 or buy them for up to $11.
