If the real world is getting — well, too real — the films of Hayao Miyazaki are always a wonderful escape. And today we want to whisk some readers into the wonderful world of “Spirited Away” with a terrific prize pack including a Blu-ray copy of the film, Hayao Miyazaki pins, and tickets to the Ghibli Fest screening of the film in your town.

A massive box office hit at home in Japan, and an Academy Award-winning masterpiece, the film follows Chichiro, who thinks she is on another boring trip with her parents.

Continue reading Contest: Win ‘Spirited Away’ Prize Pack Including Tickets For Ghibli Fest Screening at The Playlist.

Generally speaking, if you’ve seen one “greatest films of all time” list, you’ve seen them all, with the top choices usually containing some configuration of “Citizen Kane,” “The Godfather,” and “Vertigo.” History tends to solidify critical consensus which makes a list of more contemporary movies all the more interesting. With less time and perspective to weigh in, one could argue that a list of the 100 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century, as recently put together by BBC Culture, rides a bit more on gut instinct and personal favorites.

Continue reading BBC’s 100 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century List Includes ‘Tree Of Life,’ ‘Mulholland Drive,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ More at The Playlist.

It’s sort of remarkable, the ways that animation on the big screen has changed in the past two decades or so. In the early ’90s, the game was pretty much entirely owned by Disney’s hand-drawn animated fairy tales, which were hugely successful but almost entirely seen as kids’ stuff, with the occasional Don Bluth or Ralph Bakshi effort winning some eyes but not really competing; and the beginning of an interesting scene in Japan that largely failed to crossover to mainstream audiences stateside.

Continue reading The 50 Best Animated Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

Aside from the brief craze in the 1980s when “Krull” and “Conan” and the like roamed theaters, fantasy had never been a particularly popular genre for filmmakers to tackle —principally because it was too expensive, and also because too few filmmakers took it seriously. But that changed at the start of this century, as the “Harry Potter” and “Lord Of The Rings” films more or less took over Hollywood.

Continue reading The 20 Best Fantasy Films Of The 21st Century So Far at The Playlist.

When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in August, “The Wind Rises,” which hits theaters this week, was accompanied by the announcement that it would be the last feature film from director Hayao Miyazaki. It may be that that turns out to be premature—the filmmaker has said as much several times before—but if this truly is his last film, it’ll prove to be a monumental loss to cinema.

Continue reading Ranked: The Best Films Of Hayao Miyazaki at The Playlist.

Continue reading The Best Animated Films Of The Decade at The Playlist.

For anyone who says that traditional animation is dead, I point them to Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master responsible for such works as 1984’s “Laputa: Castle in the Sky,” 1998’s “Princess Mononoke” and 2002’s masterpiece “Spirited Away.” Miyazaki is one of the few remaining holdouts who stubbornly refuses to rely on CGI, and his films are all the better for it.

Continue reading Review: ‘Ponyo’; A Wonderous, Big Hearted Fantasy From Japanese Master Hayao Miyazaki at The Playlist.