Studio Ghibli’s animated masterpieces are returning to theatres this year

Posted on July 5, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Over the years writing about movies, I occasionally mention the works of Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, who have created some of the most wonderful animated films ever. For the past several years, Fathom Events, which delivers specialty film screenings to theaters across the nation, has presented its Ghibli Fest, which features one of Miyazaki’s or Studio Ghibli’s films each month.

This year is no exception, with the 2019 line-up featuring such films as the Academy Award-winning “Spirited Away,” the delightful family film “My Neighbor Totoro” and epic adventure, “Princess Mononoke.”

This week, I had a chance to see the latest installment in Ghibli Fest 2019, “Whisper of the Heart,” directed not by Miyazaki himself but by his protégé, Yoshifumi Kondô, who sadly died three years after the film’s release.

I hadn’t seen the movie in 15 years or so, but it remains a cinematic masterpiece. Occasionally, you read a book or listen to a song’s lyrics, or, yes, watch a movie, and feel like the writer is speaking directly to you. That was the case the first time I saw “Whisper of the Heart,” and it was the same this week sitting in a theater watching it again. If I were forced to make a list of my favorite movies of all time, I wouldn’t be surprised to find this one safely inside the Top 25.

Subscribe to our e-Edition and read the rest of the story. Already a subscriber? Click here to sign in.