Often referred to as the Disney of Japan, Studio Ghibli has created some of the most wondrous and groundbreaking animated films in the history of cinema. Discover (or re-discover) such classics as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and many others in this fifteen-film retrospective.
Events in Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki
A breathtakingly ambitious sci-fi/fantasy epic from master director Hayao Miyazaki, about a warrior princess in a post-apocalyptic future who must defend her kingdom against warring clans.
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Saturday March 10
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10:30 AM
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Monday March 12
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02:00 PM
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Thursday March 15
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03:30 PM
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Saturday March 17
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07:00 PM
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Sunday April 8
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06:00 PM
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Friday April 13
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06:30 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
In this dazzling action/adventure epic, a corrupt military regime and a band of sky pirates pursue a young girl who holds the secret to a legendary floating city.
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Saturday March 10
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07:00 PM
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Saturday March 31
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05:00 PM
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Saturday April 7
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06:30 PM
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Isao Takahata
A young Tokyo woman recalls her childhood during a country vacation in this gentle and humourous animated drama.
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Sunday March 11
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07:30 PM
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Thursday March 15
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09:00 PM
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Tuesday April 3
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08:45 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki's hugely successful reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" tells the story of a fish-girl who yearns to become a human.
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Monday March 12
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10:30 AM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A giant, benevolent forest spirit befriends two young girls in one of Studio Ghibli's most famous and beloved films.
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Tuesday March 13
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10:30 AM
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Wednesday March 14
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02:00 PM
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Wednesday March 14
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06:30 PM
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Saturday March 17
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01:00 PM
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Sunday April 8
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12:30 PM
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Monday April 9
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06:30 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A brave young warrior finds himself embroiled in a war between clear-cutting capitalists and the ferocious animal gods of the forest in this sweeping, gorgeously animated historical fantasy.
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Tuesday March 13
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02:00 PM
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Friday March 16
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06:30 PM
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Friday April 6
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06:30 PM
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Sunday April 8
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03:00 PM
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Yoshifumi Kondo
A young aspiring writer deals with first love while composing a fantastic adventure tale in this sensitive teen romance.
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Tuesday March 13
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08:45 PM
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Wednesday March 14
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10:30 AM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A World War I flying ace cursed to look like a pig battles a band of sky pirates in this high-flying adventure.
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Thursday March 15
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10:30 AM
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Friday March 16
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02:00 PM
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Thursday March 22
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06:30 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A teenage witch puts her powers to practical use in one of Studio Ghibli's biggest hits.
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Thursday March 15
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01:00 PM
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Saturday March 17
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10:30 AM
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Monday March 19
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06:30 PM
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Saturday April 7
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10:30 AM
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Saturday April 7
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04:00 PM
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Hiroyuki Morita
A young girl is swept into the underground cat kingdom in this delightful variation on Alice in Wonderland.
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Friday March 16
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10:30 AM
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Friday March 23
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06:30 PM
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Saturday March 24
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10:30 AM
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Tomomi Mochizuki
A love triangle develops between three high-school friends in this rarely seen masterpiece from Studio Ghibli.
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Sunday March 18
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07:00 PM
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Thursday April 5
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09:00 PM
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Isao Takahata
This delightful, episodic family comedy from Studio Ghibli was the first Ghibli film to be created entirely with computer animation.
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Saturday March 24
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07:00 PM
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Isao Takahata
The legendary tanuki — the shape-shifting raccoon-dogs of Japanese mythology — must defend their forest home from the ravages of human civilization in this whirlwind fantasy adventure.
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Sunday March 25
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04:00 PM
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Tuesday March 27
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09:00 PM
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Thursday April 12
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06:30 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A young girl plunges into the spirit kingdom to rescue her parents in Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-winning modern classic.
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Sunday March 25
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07:00 PM
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Sunday April 1
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07:00 PM
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Saturday April 7
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01:00 PM
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Hayao Miyazaki
A charismatic wizard attempts to stop a destructive war in Hayao Miyazaki's blockbuster fantasy adventure.
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Saturday March 31
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10:30 AM
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Notes
Often referred to as the Disney of Japan, Studio Ghibli has evolved over its twenty-five-year history into one of the most influential film studios in the world, its trademark animation style, powerful storytelling and deeply felt humanism creating works of elegant simplicity and universal appeal. Long cherished in its home country and spoken of in reverential tones by animators the world over, Ghibli first came to wide North American attention when Disney released Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke in 1999, establishing both a business and a creative link between the two animation giants that lasts to this day. Indeed, the celebrated work of Disney partner Pixar, the most creatively consistent of all American studios (animation or otherwise), is almost unimaginable without Ghibli: Pixar creative head John Lasseter, who calls his longtime friend Miyazaki "the greatest animation director living today," uses the Japanese master as a narrative divining rod when the studio shapes its new projects, and Ghibli's combination of beautifully imaginative fantasy and pressing, present-day social concerns is readily discernible in such Pixar films as WALL-E.
The genesis of Ghibli traces back to the early 1960s and the beginning of the anime wave in Japan. Introduced to each other at a union meeting, Miyazaki and fellow young animator Isao Takahata went on to collaborate on some of the most popular early anime series in Japan, including Heidi, Girl of the Alps and Future Boy Conan. They made their first feature together, the ambitious Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, in 1984, which was such a success that it spurred them to establish their own studio in partnership with producer Toshio Suzuki. Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli followed the success of Nausicaä with the classic films Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro (whose friendly forest spirit adorns the company's logo and Tokyo headquarters) and Kiki's Delivery Service. While Miyazaki, who directed all three films, is Ghibli's most easily identifiable auteur, his work emanates from the Ghibli house style developed by himself and Takahata: a deceptively simple, gently-paced aesthetic that sets the studio's work apart from the more kinetic anime that dominates Japanese television. And while Miyazaki carries Ghibli's humanist concerns into the realms of fantasy and legend, Takahata grounds them in contemporary and historical reality, most notably in his masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies.
That Ghibli's work can retain its remarkable cohesion with material that ranges from delightful fairy tales to muscular adventures to historical epics and serious dramas testifies to the studio's strong philosophical foundation and shared vision. Key to this sensibility is Ghibli's strong emphasis on the human characters in their films — children in particular — over such animation staples as talking animals (not that Ghibli doesn't have its fair share of those as well). Children are the protagonists in almost all of Ghibli's films, but as opposed to the reductive portrayal of kids so common in the American cinema, the Ghibli films present determined, intelligent young people who pursue their goals — whether recovering their parents from an uncanny magical realm in Spirited Away, defending a kingdom in Nausicaä or surviving in the ravaged landscape of WWII-era Japan in Grave of the Fireflies — with bravery and resourcefulness.
It is this faith in the human ability to persevere, and to retain an innate goodness despite the sad evidence of human cruelty and folly (often presented in the form of environmental devastation), that provides the overarching vision of Ghibli's work, fostering a unity of theme and style that the studio has carefully cultivated and maintained throughout its existence. Like such colleagues as Pixar or Britain's Aardman (the home of Wallace & Gromit), Ghibli has stubbornly maintained its independence even when associating with such giants as Disney, allowing for a creative freedom and vaunting ambition that is almost unprecedented in a film world effectively ruled by all-powerful media conglomerates. With Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty, an adaptation of Mary Norton's much-loved juvenile novel The Borrowers, set to arrive in theatres in February, now is an ideal time to discover (or rediscover) this wondrous cinematic legacy. — Jesse Wente