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• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

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  The film was released in Japan in 1984. While created before Studio Ghibli was founded, the film is considered to be the beginning of the studio.

• Castle in the Sky

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  1986 - The first film produced by Studio Ghibli. It was originally titled "Laputa: Castle in the Sky." Although meaningless in Japanese, the name "Laputa" comes from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

• Grave of the Fireflies

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  1988 - Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered this to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list.

• My Neighbor Totoro

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  1988 - This movie and its titular character, Totoro, have become cultural icons. It ranked #41 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

• Kiki's Delivery Service

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  1989 - My personal favorite. It was the first Studio Ghibli film released under the distribution partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Studio Ghibli.

• Porco Rosso

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  1992 - How good can a movie about a flying pig be? You'll be surprised. This film is based on Hikōtei Jidai, a three-part watercolor manga by the popular director Hayao Miyazaki.

• Pom Poko

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  1994 - This is an interesting film. Japanese folklore portrays tanuki (racoon dogs) as sociable creatures that can transform into different things, including human beings. At times, it's laugh-out-loud ridiculous considering the film prominently…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Whisper of the heart

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  1995 - For you book-lovers, you may particularly enjoy this romantic drama. A young girl finds that all the books she chooses in the library have been previously checked out by the same boy.

• Princess Mononoke

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  1997 - Princess Mononoke was the first animated film ever to receive the Japan Academy Prize for picture of the year. Hayao Miyazaki had intended this to be his final film before retiring. Its great success led him to do another, Spirited Away, the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My neighbors the Yamadas

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  1999 - This is Studio Ghibli's first 100% digitally animated film. Directir Isao Takahata wanted the art style of watercolor pictures, which needed digital technology to get the style right.

• Spirited Away

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  2001 - Spirited Away drew an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. US$250 million), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the film Princess Mononoke for highest grossing animated motion…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Cat Returns

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  2002 - Two characters from "Whisper of the Heart" revisit us in this story. The film started when Studio Ghibli received a proposal from a Japanese theme park to make a twenty minute animation starring cats.

• Howl's moving castle

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  2004 - Upon seeing Spirited Away, Christian Bale immediately agreed to play any role in this film. He didn't expect to get the titular role.

• Tales From Earthsea

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  2006 - Initially, "Earthsea" author Ursula K. Le Guin wanted Hayao Miyazaki to direct the film. At the time, however, the elder Miyazaki was tied up working on Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and thus could not come on board at the right time. Not…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ponyo

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  2008 - Hayao Miyazaki stated at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con that he was inspired to create the film after watching Disney's animated adaptation The Little Mermaid (1989). The opening 12 seconds, involving vast schools of fish and undersea…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Secret World of Arrietty

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  2010 - I love the relationship that develops between the main characters of this film. Based on the book "The Borrowers," "The Secret World of Arrietty" is a touching film about a boy who strikes up a friendship with a borrower who lives in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• From up on poppy hill

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  2011 - Set in 1963 Yokohama, Japan, the film tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a high school girl living in a boarding house, Coquelicot Manor. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a member of the school's newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wind Rises

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  This oscar-nominated film was released in 2013. Hayao Miyazaki announced this would be his last film before retiring from his nearly 3 decade long career with Studio Ghibili.

• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

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  2013 - At 137 minutes this is the longest film by Studio Ghibli, three minutes longer than Princess Mononoke (1997). The scroll which Lady Sagami unrolls for Princess Kaguya at about the 38 minute mark is based on actual scrolls. In 1999 Takahata…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• When Marnie Was There

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  2014 - After Hayao Miyazaki's departure in late 2013 and the declarations made in mid 2014 by Toshio Suzuki (then Studio Ghibli's General Manager) according to which the studio would take a "brief pause" to re-evaluate and restructure, the public…Read moreRead more of this annotation