Studio Ghibli (スタジオジブリ) is a Japanese animated film studio. Its anime films have been provocative, imaginative and emotional and largely praised all over the world.
Its name derives from the nickname the Italians used for their Saharan scouting planes in the Second World War, which derived from the Italian word for hot wind blowing through the Sahara Desert. Though the name is Italian, the pronunciation when relating to the studio is 'ji-bree' or 'ji-bu-ri'.
Founded in 1985, it is headed by the legendary Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎 駿). Its origins date back to 1983, and the film Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (風の谷のナウシカ Kaze no tani no Naushika, 1984), which started as a serialized manga in a publication of Tokuma Shoten's (徳間書店) Animage. Tokuma is the parent company of Studio Ghibli, and has provided Disney with the video rights to eight of the films and global distribution rights to Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫 Mononoke Hime, 1997) and Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001).
The most famous and lauded film from the studio that wasn't directed by Miyazaki is Grave of the Fireflies (火垂の墓 Hotaru no Haka, 1988), directed by Takahata Isao, a sad film focusing on the lives - and deaths - of two war orphans in post-Second World War Japan.
Studio Ghibli films include: