Every Studio Ghibli Animated Film, Ranked Worst to Best
Updated February 1, 2021 to add Earwig and the Witch.
There has never been a better time to revisit the Studio Ghibli catalog. Founded in the mid-1980s by a group of animators led by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, the Japanese studio is almost without peer in the world of animation, releasing 20 critically acclaimed features (and just one dud) over three decades. Recently, the entire Ghibli catalog was added to a variety of digital services (like Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes) for the first time ever (in both their subtitled Japanese original versions and Disney-produced English-language dubs), and all of the films will be available to stream for free to subscribers on day one when HBO Max launches at the end of May.
Wondering where to start? In the gallery above, we rank every Studio Ghibli release from worst to absolute best, according to their Metascores (which measure the opinions of top professional film critics).
Photo credits: Studio Ghibli, Toei (slide 18)
The directorial debut for animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi, this 2010 film is an adaptation of Mary Norton's classic children's book The Borrowers, which centers on a miniature family living inside the walls of a house. Disney's 2012 English-language dub featured Amy Poehler and Will Arnett, though the British version released a year earlier had an even more intriguing voice cast, with Saoirse Ronan, future Oscar winner Olivia Colman, and 14-year-old future Spider-Man Tom Holland, in his first-ever film role.
“Arrietty brings the same magic to the mundane, elevating the ordinary confines of everyday life into sumptuous surprises. And while Arrietty lacks the sweep of 'Spirited Away,' 'Princess Mononoke,' or 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,' it preserves all the trademark sensitivity to the emotional turmoil of adolescence.” —Steven James Snyder, Time
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