Following the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki co-founded the animation production company Studio Ghibli with Takahata in 1985, and has produced nearly all of his subsequent work through it. Miyazaki continued to gain recognition with his next three films. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) recounts the adventure of two orphans seeking a magical castle-island that floats in the sky; My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro, 1988) tells of the adventure of two girls and their interaction with forest spirits; and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), adapted from a novel by Eiko Kadono, tells the story of a small-town girl who leaves home to begin life as a witch in a big city. Miyazaki's fascination with flight is evident throughout these films, ranging from the ornithopters flown by pirates in Laputa:Castle in the Sky, to the Totoro and the Cat Bus soaring through the air, and Kiki flying her broom.
Princess Mononoke was the first Miyazaki film to use computer graphics. In this sequence, the demon snakes are computer-generated and composited onto Ashitaka, who is hand-drawn.
Miyazaki’s works are characterised by the recurrence of progressive themes such as the absence of villains; environmentalism; pacifism; and feminism. His films are also frequently concerned with childhood transition and a marked preoccupation with flight. Miyazaki's narratives are notable for not pitting a hero against an unsympathetic antagonist. In Spirited Away (2001), Miyazaki states "the heroine (is) thrown into a place where the good and bad dwell together,she manages not because she has destroyed the 'evil,' but because she has acquired the ability to survive." Even though Miyazaki sometimes feels pessimistic about the world, he prefers to show children a positive world view instead, and rejects simplistic stereotypes of good and evil.
These are some of his projects which I'd seen and liked the most:
Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle follows the story of young Sophie Hatter, a bookworm, the eldest of three daughters, a girl doomed to an uninteresting life as a hat maker. Sophie resigns herself to her boring fate, but fate has other plans for her. Cursed by the Witch of the Waste with the body of a 90-year-old woman, she finds her way to the moving castle inhabited by the wizard Howl, rumours of a wizard who eats the souls of young girls. Whereas,Howl has also been cursed by the Witch as well, and is seeking the love of young girl to help him break the curse. Will both of them be able to break the curse in the end?
*Howl's voice in Japanese language is a famous actor/singer - Takuya Kimura (木村拓哉).
Spirited Away opens with Chihiro and her parents traveling to their new home. Chihiro resents the idea and expresses her disapproval in a quiet sulk. Along the way, her father mistakes an off-beaten road for a short cut, and they inadvertently wind up in what he thinks is an abandoned amusement park. A brief exploration reveals a restaurant's unattended buffet and Chihiro's parents succumb to the delicious offerings. While her parents gorge themselves on the food, Chihiro continues to explore and encounters a young man named Haku. Haku warns her to leave at once, but by this time it is too late. Chihiro discovers she is trapped in a vacation spot for the spirit world and that her parents have literally become pigs. With no one to turn to, she must learn how to survive in this strange land and, more importantly, how rescue her parents and return home.
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