Spirited Away is a film released in 2002 by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. The production company is Studio Ghibli. This film is similar to many of his other films which are famous in Japan. Those include My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle, and many more. Despite all these films, it took a long time for his popularity to reach the United States. Yet in that time, many referred to him as the Walt Disney of Japan. His company, Studio Ghibli, and Disney Studios brought nine of his films to the United States to be watched by an American audience. It wasn't until the release of Spirited Away that the term "anime" began to reign its forever lasting popularity. Spirited Away was the highest grossing movie of all time in Japan. Its release began a grander spread of popularity for Miyazaki to make more memorable films for his audience. It won an Oscar award.