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!
on October 14th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I am very glad to know about these movies. Many people overlook the importance of ’sharing’ their children’s ‘viewing experiences’. I remember when my children were very young, I deliberated about whether to ‘tightly screen’ their viewing or whether to ’share their viewing’ so that I could be involved in how they processed what they were watching. We all know that kids think they are just being entertained when they watch a movie or TV but that is not all that is happening. They are ‘learning’ all the time. I was concerned that my children might be exposed to negative ideals and inappropriate images and dialogue that I wouldn’t want them to learn. In the end, I decided that it was impossible to ‘police’ the screening process effectively to the degree that would have been ideal. So I decided to watch things with them….not use the movie or TV show as a babysitter. This meant that I could actually use movies and TV as a tool and a context within which to help my children ‘join the dots’ between what they were watching and ‘real life’. I was able to consolidate lessons and values that I believed where good for them and would serve them well and to give a perspective on the values that I thought would hinder their development into balanced and happy individuals. It also helped me encourage them to verbalize their opinions. As Don Campbell says ‘movies relate on multiple levels to children and adults’.
I want to thank Don for his contribution.
Vicki Jardine
on October 14th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Thank you for your great comment and story Vicki!
I can definitely relate to your experience.
You just never know what it going to be in movies, even movies that are supposed to be for kids. I’m constantly getting surprised by the language and violence in them. But as you said, if I watch the movies with my daughters then I can explain and give them context if there is something that I think is questionable.
This is one of the reasons I found Totoro and Kiki’s delivery service refreshing - they were just great movies that both kids and adults can appreciate, without any questionable content. Just good story, good animation, and interesting characters.