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Studio Ghibli, Inc. is a Japanese animation film studio, and previously was a subsidiary of Tokuma Shoten. The company’s logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki’s film My Neighbor Totoro.

Several anime features created by Studio Ghibli have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award including Laputa: Castle in the Sky in 1986, My Neighbor Totoro in 1988, and Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989. In 2002, Spirited Away won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award.

Founded in 1985, the studio is headed by the acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki along with his faithful companion Isao Takahata, as well as the studio’s executive managing director and long-time producer Toshio Suzuki. Its origins date back to 1984, with the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which was popularized as a serialized manga in a publication of Tokuma Shoten’s Animage magazine after the original screenplay was rejected. The film was eventually produced by Topcraft and the film’s success spurred the formation of Ghibli. Much of Ghibli’s works are distributed in Japan by the noted film distributor Toho.

Tokuma is the parent company of Studio Ghibli, and it has provided the Walt Disney Company with the video rights to all of Ghibli’s output that did not have previous international distribution, including the global, non-Japan distribution rights to Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Miyazaki’s film, Howl’s Moving Castle, was based on a book by British author Diana Wynne Jones, published in several countries including Canada and the United States. Composer Joe Hisaishi has provided the soundtrack for all of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films.

The most famous and lauded film from the studio that was not directed by Miyazaki is Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata, a film focusing on the lives of two war orphans towards the end of the Second World War in Japan.

Over the years, there has been a close relationship between Studio Ghibli and the magazine Animage, which regularly runs exclusive articles about the studio and its members in a section titled “Ghibli Notes.” Artwork from Ghibli’s films and other works frequently graces the cover of the magazine.

The company is well-known for its strict “no-edits” policy in licensing their films abroad. This was a result of the dubbing of Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind when the film was released in the United States as Warriors of the Wind. The film was heavily edited and americanized, with significant portions cut and the plot rewritten.

Miyazaki’s latest film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, was released in Japan on July 19, 2008.

Ghibli List – The Studio Ghibli Collection

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, directed by Hayao Miyazaki)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984, Hayao Miyazaki)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, Hayao Miyazaki)
Only Yesterday (1991, Isao Takahata)
Porco Rosso (1992, Hayao Miyazaki)
I Can Hear the Sea (1993, Tomomi Mochizuki – made for TV, also known as Ocean Waves)
Pom Poko (1994, Isao Takahata)
Whisper of the Heart (1995, Yoshifumi Kondo)
Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999, Isao Takahata)
Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki)
The Cat Returns (2002, Hiroyuki Morita)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004, Hayao Miyazaki)
Tales from Earthsea (2006, Gorō Miyazaki)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008, Hayao Miyazaki)

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Studio Ghibli“.