Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Based on Joan G. Robinson's beloved fantasy novel "When Marnie Was There," director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and his Studio Ghibli animators have made a delightful film about a budding friendship between two girls in the Hokkaido countryside, pitched squarely at girls the same age as the young protagonists. The film is gorgeously animated, though its tugs at the heartstrings are of the sort Miyazaki disdained.
