Disney claims to have magic; they can enchant child and adult alike. What they really have, though, is a magicians’ bag of expertly crafted tricks. Studio Ghibli has real magic.
Even without Miyazaki at the helm, first time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi carries the Ghibli DNA and makes real magic.
Some of their most powerful magic is realizing characters, both children and adults alike, that are so plausibly authentic that you effortlessly slip into the world they inhabit. The stories are inevitably from the point of view of the children, but the adults are never props; they are fully realized and they are drawn as our child protagonist would see them.
It’s also magic how Ghibli’s artists can create such achingly…