I recently discovered Hayao Miyazaki and his films. I found them on Netflix, and watched Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service with my daughters (6 and 9 years old.) We were instantly captivated! They watched each movie at least 5 times which is rare for them. But I can see why. The story is excellent, the artwork and animation is vivid, and you can instantly identify with the characters.
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s most highly regarded anime directors. He was unknown in the U.S. until 1997 when Princess Mononoke was released for U.S. audiences.
The movies that we watched were:
Totoro - Two young sisters discover a forest wonderland with exotic creatures - spirits of the forest - that help them on their journey to save their mother.
Kiki’s Delivery Service - Young witch Kiki moves away from home to strike out on her own with her cat Jiji, and starts an express delivery service (with her flying broomstick.) She runs into some difficulty though, and soon learns that to keep her powers she needs to truly believe in herself. 
I am a huge fan of the Pixar movies; I love the way that movies like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and the rest of their movies relate on multiple levels to children and adults. It was no surprise to me then, when I popped in Kiki’s Delivery Service that John Lasseter from Pixar did the introduction, explaining that Hayao Miyazaki was one of his inspirations!
About the author:
In addition to KidConfidence, Don Campbell is the publisher of Expand2Web.com, a website devoted to helping small business owners automate their business websites using WordPress, and get a steady stream of new customers from Google and Yahoo. Don grew up an avid gamer and lives with his wife and two daughters in the San Jose, California where they enjoy traveling and exploring the Redwoods and the Pacific ocean beaches, and playing video games!
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