HPPH's Studio Ghibli favourites

Spirited Away (2001)

My favourite Ghibli film is Spirited Away, it was my first trip to an independent cinema, the Showroom in my native Sheffield at the tender/informative age of 16 in 2002. I went in order to impress my slightly older very beloved teenage boyfriend. However, the transformative storytelling, enthralling imagery and iconic characters meant that I came out loving film more.

Sylvia - Young Audiences Officer

My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

The wonderful thing about Studio Ghibli films is their variety. If you want to introduce a young child to mind blowing visuals with a simple tale, Ponyo would be perfect. For a more epic, and potentially scary adventure, there are plenty to choose from. But when I'm looking for a tale about loving your friends and family, with Hayao Miyazaki's usual mythical creatures, but less peril, I turn to Totoro. You can never have too much love in your life, or in the world.

Bill - Volunteer

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

For a good chunk of my pre-teen years I had a recurring nightmare about a stone monster emerging from the fireplace to get me. I eventually saw Laputa in my twenties and had the surreal experience of recognising the monster from my nightmares.

We didn’t have a TV in our house when I was young but any time we visited our cousin, he’d show us the cool movies he’d rented and Laputa must have been one of them. I apparently forgot (or perhaps repressed) the film but those stone robots took firm root in my subconscious.

These days, I find the easy-to-understand terror of my childhood to be quite comforting when compared to the existential dread of adult life. 

And so Laputa will always stalk a very special place in my heart.

Jos - Deputy Operations Manager

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

My favourite Ghibli movie has to be Howl’s Moving Castle. It has everything a Ghibli movie should - the beautiful shots of stretches of nature, the magic, comedy and enough bittersweet scenes to make sure you cry at least once. I love it so much I also read the book it was based on by Dianne Wynne Jones - it’s a lot different (Howl is Welsh and plays rugby?!) but so charming that it somehow made me love the film adaptation even more. It’s the one Ghibli film I can go back to over and over and never tire of!

Abbie - Volunteer

Whisper of the Heart (1995)

Whisper of the Heart is a Ghibli production it seems barely anyone even knows about, despite it (unlike the many understandably neglected ones like “On Your Mark” or the GHIBLIES films that I don’t think have ever seen a UK release) being easily available here. The one time I knowingly met someone who had already seen it, they were a Japanese person who also considered it their favourite of the feature films the company had produced so far at that point. I like to think many more people would agree if they only saw it.    

Jordan - Cinema Services Coordinator

Spirited Away (2001)

It's so hard to choose a favourite Ghibli film! The first one I saw was Spirited Away, so that will always be special. The animation and the soundtracks are always beautiful. Ghibli films are always so original and have interesting themes. I've always liked the fact that they have great female characters.

Lou - Volunteer

Arrietty (2010)

I don’t know if it’s fair to say it’s my favourite as so many of the Studio Ghibli films have landed with me with significance over the years (including Laputa, Castle in the Sky which was perhaps my first and the one which imprinted on my brain some expectation about what a great story should look and feel like, should achieve) but I want to give a shout out to 2010’s Arrietty.

I’ve always loved stories about micro worlds playing out underneath our noses. Mary Norton’s The Borrowers has been a firm favourite of mine forever. I think as such a Ghibli interpretation of Arrietty’s adventures was both nerve wracking (as is any adaptation of a beloved source) and exciting. Thankfully director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s film is a perfect retelling of this story, capturing all of the inquisitiveness and bravery that I always loved about Arrietty but also adding in a great emotional depth, particularly in how it paints her relationship with Pod, a human boy by whom she is accidentally discovered. There’s something incredible about children’s films that manage to hint at the well of feelings and experiences still to come which is quite amazing and that Arrietty captures that period of adolescence with a strange realism whilst never losing grip of the magic of the story it’s telling is really a wonder to me.

Wendy - Head of Cinema

Pom Poko (1994)

(My) lack of a deeper knowledge of Japanese mythology and folklore is never a barrier with Ghibli films, as there is always so much artistry and storytelling to enjoy on many other levels. This is never more evident in Pom Poko (1994), the title of which refers to the racoon dog (tanuki) characters of the film drumming on their bellies, as they attempt to save their city from encroaching humans. Not knowing this detail will not spoil the fun of this film, and neither will the knowledge that tanuki are symbolic of fertility, which is (possibly) why there are so many testicles on display. However, I have really no idea why the racoon dogs are using their testicles for parachutes and weapons. Which is simply magical.

Robb - Operations & Programme Manager

My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

Choosing a favourite Studio Ghibli film is a real challenge because they’re all so wonderful and completely transportive, magical and beautiful. But if I had to choose a Ghibli world I’d most like to stumble into, it would be My Neighbour Totoro. Just like in the film when Mei is dealing with her mum being in hospital and the magical characters like the Catbus and Totoro are a source of solace and distraction, My Neighbour Totoro and other Ghibli films (apart from the incredibly sad Grave of the Fireflies) are the perfect escape and balm to any difficulties in this sadly Totoro-less real world where we have to use regular buses.

Martha - Digital Marketing Coordinator

Spirited Away (2001)

Spirited Away was the first Studio Ghibli film I ever saw – I remember very clearly being taken by my parents to see it at Empire Cinema (now Cineworld) at The Gate in Newcastle, and it blew my mind. It was a wonderful sort of Japanese take on an age-old “Alice in Wonderland” setup of a young girl entering into a surreal world growing as the person. It’s the film that brought Miyazaki to a much wider audience in the West – he won one of his two Oscars for it—and marked the second of his four "retirements".

It remains my favourite Studio Ghibli film (although My Neighbour Totoro is close behind). Like all of Miyazaki's films, it has a strong anti-capitalist theme and is about how greed has affected our relationship with nature. It's a perfect film and like all good films that are primarily aimed at kids it doesn't sugarcoat anything or talk down to them.

Ian - Volunteer

My Neighbour Totoro is showing at Hyde Park Picture House from Friday 2nd August. You can book tickets here.