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)
Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who previously directed The Secret World of Arrietty for Studio Ghibli, returned in 2014 with this adaptation of the 1967 YA novel by Joan G. Robinson.
For now, this is the final Studio Ghibli film, though in 2016 Hayao Miyazaki revealed that he is un-retiring to direct a new feature, How Do You Live?. But a painstakingly slow production process means that film won't reach theaters (should they still exist) until 2023 at the earliest.
“Yonebayashi’s open-hearted tale, more than any other Ghibli offering, could conceivably have worked just as well in live-action, and yet the tender story gains so much from the studio’s delicate, hand-crafted approach.” —Peter Debruge, Variety
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