2002

FOR A FILM full of stink spirits, faceless ghosts, dragon boys and kimono-wearing frogs, seems oddly real. Sure, Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 Studio Ghibli animation is set in a magical dreamland accessed through an abandoned amusement park, one where parents are turned into pigs and sentient balls of soot scurry around characters’ felt familiar: a fantasy rooted in the reality of being a kid, in an oversized world that at once enchants and terrifies.