Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the leading figures in anime and the best known in the United States, having succeeded in making films such as My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro, 1988), Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001), and [Princess Mononoke] (Mononoke Hime, 1997) as popular with children as the [Disney] classics, [The Lion King], [Aladdin], etc. Miyazaki is the first anime artist to make movie long anime's as opposed to a series of episodes, thus contributing to his success over seas.

Very inspired by Disney, Miyazaki used to watch and re-watch Disney movies in order to recopy them. And since 1996, Miyazaki's studio Ghibli has been in a distribution deal with Disney.