Few figures in cinema have such a towering reputation as Hayao Miyazaki, And one of the director's crowning achievements is Studio Ghibli, who over the course of nearly thirty years produced some of the finest animated films in modern cinema. The Phoenix Picturehouse are marking this by putting on a season of their finest films, perfect for anyone who has never experienced a Ghibli film, those who are familiar with the works, and those who are megafans of the animation powerhouse.
The line-up for this season includes My Neighbour Totoro, whose central figure became the company's icon, Spirited Away, which won Ghibli an Oscar for Best Animated Film, and Grave of the Fireflies, as good an argument as any that animated films need not be just for younger audience members. Ghibli films tend to be romantic, magic realist fairy tales with a powerful grounding in environmental issues and an awareness of the modern world they are a part of.
All of the films in the Summer of Ghibli are worth watching, be it the tale of a witch who sets up an air courier service, the story of a brother and sister in World War II Japan, or the story of a goldfish girl falling in love with a human boy.
Japanese animated flick Spirited Away has wowed the world, pleasing punters and critics in equal measure. Knocking GGI movies for six, it relishes in its own resplendent and glorious colour. If ...
To those who are not familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's output, this film may come as something of a surprise. The vivid grandeur of the images, the complexity of the characterisation and the shameless ...
If you don’t fancy a carefully drawn cartoon world which is a kaleidoscope of mythology, reality, history, magic and nature observing a pattern of repeated themes, where images are treated both as ...
Two years late but worth the wait. Hayao Miyazaki’s first full-length feature since 2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle may be a return to the more child-like innocence of My Neighbour Totoro (1988), ...
