Hayao Miyazaki is awesome

Okay. Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese director and animator. He has done a number of feature films and his studio, Studio Ghibli, has done more.

A list of some of his more popular films (read: the ones I've seen):

Spirited Away - this is the story of a girl, Chihiro, whose parents get turned into pigs after eating food from the spirit world. She must work in a bath house for spirits to find a way to save them. She also grows up along the way.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Win - A princess of a small kingdom on the edge of the toxic forest. Years before people had polluted the planet so badly that they needed to be destroyed. These giants that could spit lava and fire came and demolished the human race. The main story takes place many years after, human population is smaller but the land was so polluted from before that it turned much of the land toxic, anything that grows there is poisonous, hence the toxic forest.

Ponyo - His most recent film, it takes place in a small seaside town. It's the story of a fish who turns into a girl and the boy who finds her.

Whisper of the Heart - This is a school romance, about a girl Shizuku and a boy Seiji. Seiji wants to be a violin maker and his wants to go away to study abroad. Shizuku feels like she has no direction, and faced with Seiji's determination to go after his dream she feels a bit silly. So she writes a book. (Note: another film call The Cat Returns uses characters from this film, but The Cat Returns is not by Miyazaki, but is a Studio Ghibli film. It's a good movie.)

Princess Mononoke - A prince from a distant land stumbles across a war between humans and humans, and between humans and nature. He sees the pain that the wars are causing and resolves to stop it, sometimes helping out the wild wolf-girl in her fight against the humans.

Kiki's Delivery Service - A witch must spend a year away from home, and Kiki, the protagonist, is a witch. This film follows her first steps away from home, with first love and finding true strength. Accompanied by her trusty - and hilarious - cat, Gigi.

Castle in the Sky - Laputa is the mythical floating city, which turns out to be not so mythical. A young girl has the key to finding Laputa, and with pirates and the government after her, her best hope is a young miner boy.

Howl's Moving Castle - Based on a book by Diana Wynne Jones (who is also awesome) it follows a young girl who gets the appearance of an old lady and her journeys with the feared and sometimes great Wizard Howl. The book and the movie have the same premise but the book and movie have totally different endings.