Famed director Guillermo del Toro is a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki, admitting he was so overwhelmed by Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro that he wept while watching the entire film.
Del Toro recently spoke at length about his lifelong love for Studio Ghibli in an interview with Collider. He said his appreciation for the animatio studio's films started at a young age. "I saw the work of Isao Takahata when I was a kid," he explained. "Then, many years later, when I saw the first Studio Ghibli movies, I said, 'That's like the movies I saw as a kid.' They have such a recognizable seal." Del Toro did not specify which of Takahata's works impressed him at such an early age. As Studio Ghibli's co-founder, Takahata was prolific with TV and film projects, starting with 1961's The Littlest Warrior as his earliest directing credit.
Isao Takahata wrote, produced and directed numerous Studio Ghibli films throughout an accomplished career, and he directed the monumental The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, his final film before his passing in 2018. Takahata's most well-known work is arguably 1988's Grave of the Fireflies, a moving story of orphaned siblings left to fend for themselves with barely enough to survive in a war-torn society. Grave of the Fireflies is considered one of the most heart-wrenching films of all time, with movie critic Roger Ebert describing it as "the most realistic animated film" he's seen "in feeling." My Neighbor Totoro Moved del Toro to Tears
Del Toro was also asked which of the Studio Ghibli films he would recommend first-time viewers to start with, and My Neighbor Totoro was the director's first pick. "I think it's always good to start with Totoro because the power of [Hayao] Miyazaki is that he shows you something that is impossibly beautiful and painfully beautiful," he said. "This is something that very few filmmakers do. When something is so absolutely staggeringly beautiful as a piece of art, you understand that you will never experience it in real life, you, at the same time, gain it and lose it, meaning you get a sense of almost melancholy and you're moved to tears."