14 films over seven days in whirlwind Japanese animation series

Film preview

“The Studio Ghibli Collection: 1984 to 2009”

Friday-Nov. 15 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive, Atlanta. $10; $8 matinees before 6 p.m. weekdays or first shows Saturdays-Sundays; $8 seniors; $8 age 12 and under; $8 students Mondays-Thursdays. 404-879-0160, www.landmarktheatres.com, www.gkids.tv/ghibli.

When Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” won the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2003, it was considered not only a victory for Japanese anime but for hand-drawn animation at a time when computers were taking over ‘toons everywhere. The Japanese filmmaker was hailed as a master visual storyteller.

Reviewing the fantasy epic in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time, critic Eleanor Ringel Gillespie wrote: “If Lewis Carroll were alive today, and making movies instead of writing books, ‘Spirited Away’ is the movie he’d make. Not since he sent Alice tumbling down that rabbit hole has there been such a rapturous mix of whimsy and the surreal.”

More Miyazaki films have played the U.S. since, most notably “Howl’s Moving Castle.” But many of the features from Studio Ghibli, the Tokyo production studio he founded in 1985 with fellow director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, have never received a full U.S. release.

Starting Friday, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema gives metro moviegoers a chance to catch up, unspooling the retrospective “The Studio Ghibli Collection: 1984 to 2009.” Screenings of the 14 films (including Miyazaki’s debut feature, “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” done before Studio Ghibli’s founding) will feature newly struck 35 mm prints, and most will be shown in the original Japanese with English subtitles.

The schedule (with original Japanese release dates listed):

• Friday: "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) in English, 11:10 a.m., 4:20 and 9:45 p.m.

• Friday: "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984), 1:45 and 7 p.m., 12:15 a.m.

• Saturday: "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989), 11:45 a.m., 4:45 and 9:40 p.m.

• Saturday: "Spirited Away" (2001), 2:05, 7 and 11:45 p.m.

• Sunday: "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988), 12:15, 5 and 9:40 p.m.

• Sunday: "Castle in the Sky" (1986), 2:20 and 7 p.m.

• Nov. 12: "The Cat Returns" (2002) in English, 10:15 a.m., 2:45 and 7 p.m.

• Nov. 12: "Whisper of the Heart" (1995), 12:15, 4:35 and 8:50 p.m.

• Nov. 13: "My Neighbors the Yamadas" (1999), 11:50 a.m., 4:40 and 9:40 p.m.