The Cat Returns
This 2002 manga adaptation follows a high school student (Chizuru Ikewaki) who saves a cat from being run over and is spirited away to the magical Cat Kingdom, where the Cat […]
Tag Archives: Studio Ghibli
Pom Poko
Isao Takahata’s Pom Poko follows a gang of shapeshifting raccoons as they hatch a series of fur-brained schemes to stop humans from destroying their forest home. Let’s call it Avotter. Where Studio Ghibli’s […]
Kiki’s Delivery Service
The first Studio Ghibli movie to become a hit in America (thanks to a distribution deal with Disney), Kiki’s Delivery Service is the story of a young girl (Minami Takayama) who travels to […]
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Isao Takahata’s swansong is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, believed to be the oldest Japanese narrative in existence. The tale of a tiny princess discovered inside a bamboo shoot […]
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
I’d like to start this review by crediting Cineworld for trying to resolve the age-old subbing vs. dubbing debate once and for all by attempting to screen a Japanese film […]
Princess Mononoke
A demonic curse leads the young prince Ashitaka (Yōji Matsuda) to San (Yuriko Ishida) AKA Princess Mononoke; a raised-by-wolves eco-warrior and a princess in name only, like Leia or Eugenie. The war between civilisation […]
The Red Turtle
From the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Finding Nemo, turtles have a reputation in Hollywood of being crass or stoned. As ever, it’s up to a foreign film to redress […]
My Neighbor Totoro
My Neighbor Totoro is a Studio Ghibli classic about a family who move into a house on the edge of an enchanted forest to be near their mother in hospital – not to […]
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
In Laputa: Castle in the Sky, a pair of children (Keiko Yokozawa and Mayumi Tanaka) are being chased for their magic amulet that holds the key to a floating fortress. Imagine […]
Spirited Away
I regret to say that I’ve never seen an anime film. Given the number of fans the genre has even in the West, and the critical acclaim it receives, this […]
Screen Goblin 