The best Ghibli movies to watch with a 2-year-old

Quarantining with a toddler isn’t always easy. When my daughter gets a meltdown while both my girlfriend and I are in a meeting, for example, or if she wants to say hi to all the people I have a Zoom call with. Fortunately, there’s still a laptop and a Netflix subscription that can entertain her — and me.

Indeed, there are a lot of movies on Netflix that can captivate not only my daughter, but me too. I’m of course not talking about Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol, but something much better: the Studio Ghibli movies. The animation studio, founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, among others, could easily be described as the Japanese Disney.

Since all 21 Ghibli movies arrived on Netflix in February, my daughter and I have watched 12 of those movies together. Because these films are often incorrectly rated 7+ by Netflix, it’s a bit hard to figure out which films are and which are not suitable for a child of two. Some of those films may not contain violence, but they cover very mature themes (Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves) or are just too weird (Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away).

These are the films that we both thoroughly enjoyed — of course in several viewing sessions:

This is perhaps Studio Ghibli’s most famous film. The movie is about two children who move with their father to a dilapidated house in the countryside. In their garden they meet magical creatures, the Totoro. These creatures are especially visible to those who believe in them. My Neighbor Totoro is a perfect first Ghibli movie and instantly immerses you in a completely different style of animated movies. One in which, unlike most Disney films, it is not about a beginning, middle and epic ending of a story, but where the viewer is just a casual passer-by.

Since we saw this movie, “watching Kiki” has become synonymous with “watching a movie”. Apparently almost every female character in every animated film is now called Kiki, named after the little witch from Kiki’s Delivery Service who moves to a new city with her cat Jiji.

What if there were little people who secretly live in our house? It’s a theory that has already led to endless films and books, including The World of David the Gnome and The Borrowers. The latter tells the exact same story as Arrietty, although the Ghibli film is of course a lot more magical. In one of the strongest scenes of the movie a bird attacks a tiny person and suddenly there is no sound anymore. Any other film studio would have just opted for an intense string orchestra to create more suspense, but director Hiromasa Yonebayashi decided to remove the sound entirely. Talking about having balls!

The “cat” referred to in the title is Baron, a character from the beautiful Whisper of the Heart. The film tells the story of Haru, who rescues a cat on the way to school and is promptly proclaimed their new queen by all cats. It’s a funny idea and movie, which sometimes feels like Alice in Wonderland.

Another Ghibli movie that you could compare to a Disney classic is Ponyo. This film tells the story of a little girl who lives in the sea but magically enters the human world and can stay there if she manages to win the heart of the boy Sōsuke. Sounds familiar?

This one’s different than the other works made by Ghibli, because it’s not only drawn in a completely different style, but also has no coherent story. My Neighbors the Yamadas is a collection of short, funny gags that provide an insight into the life of the Yamada family.