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].