The films of animation whiz Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki's latest animation, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, gets a limited release in the US on 14 August. The new film from the world-famous Studio Ghibli is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid but retooled to include Miyazaki's trademark message of environmental degradation and renewal Photograph: PR

Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea, or Gake no ue no Ponyo, is about a goldfish princess who falls in love with a human boy and strives to become human herself. But when she magically becomes a human girl, her transformation triggers powerful forces that threaten to upset the world's natural balance Photograph: PR

Ponyo, along with most Studio Ghibli productions, is distributed worldwide by the Walt Disney Company. Miyazaki's (left) old-style, hand-drawn animation techniques contrast nicely with the computer-generated oeuvre of Disney chief creative officer and Pixar whiz John Lasseter (right) Photograph: David Livingston/Getty Images North America

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), about a mining apprentice who teams up with a girl whose magical pendant leads them to a legendary floating castle, was the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli Photograph: Buena Vista/Allstar

In the whimsical My Neighbour Totoro, which won of the Animage Anime grand prix award in 1988, two sisters who move to the countryside are befriended by Totoro, a friendly wood spirit who introduces them to a menagerie of extraordinary characters, including a cat that doubles as a bus Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

In Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), the enterprising young Kiki uses her witchy powers to start a delivery service with a difference. Miyazaki has said the story is set in the 1950s in an alternative universe in which both world wars never took place Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Princess Mononoke (1997) tells the tale of a young warrior, afflicted by a deadly curse, who travels to the forests of the west in search of a cure. There, he becomes entangled in the bitter battle between a clan of humans against the forest's animal gods, led by a young woman raised by wolves Photograph: Cinetext/Miramax Films/Allstar

Spirited Away (2001) became the first anime film to win an Academy Award, the first (and so far only) non-English-language animation to win the best animated feature Oscar. The film chronicles a 10-year-old girl's perilous efforts to free herself and her family from a fantasy world within an abandoned theme park Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Disney

Spirited Away featured the typical Miyazaki flourishes: a resourceful young female protagonist who is helped or hindered by an assortment of bizarre creatures in a hallucinatory yet child-friendly landscape Photograph: PR

The Oscar-nominated Howl's Moving Castle – about a girl turned by a spiteful witch into an old woman who throws in her lot with a self-indulgent young wizard and his legged walking home – is one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history Photograph: PR

Howl's Moving Castle was based on the prize-winning fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones Photograph: Buena Vista/Everett/Rex Features

Hayao Miyazaki receives the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement prize at the Venice film festival in 2005 Photograph: Domenico Stinellis/AP