Miyazaki is a fascinating person, and The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness pulls no punches in reflecting him at his worst as well as his best

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 7, 2023

If you think a documentary about Studio Ghibli might appeal to you, stop wasting your time with me and start streaming The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.

| Aug 2, 2017

A fitting coda to a great career.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 13, 2016

[It] does the world a service by chronicling and preserving, in a most charming and understated way, Miyazaki-era Ghibli and the human element beneath its creative genius.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 25, 2016

One last peek behind the curtain at the masterful Studio Ghibli

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 12, 2015

Mami Sunada's documentary, while quite the insider's and fan's film, is also a deeply elegiac portrait of the labour and laboriousness, flecked with uncertainty and doubt, behind some of the finest art- and imagination-fuelled films of the past 30 years.

| May 25, 2015

For film buffs it's worthwhile viewing.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2015

If the magic of this magic kingdom is no longer concentrated in this particular pile of bricks and mortar on the outskirts of Tokyo, we can take heart in the fact that it's immortalized forever in every frame of every film that Ghibli ever made.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 31, 2015

Miyazaki dispenses endlessly quotable observations. For example: 'Filmmaking only brings suffering... How do we know movies are even worthwhile? If you really think about it, is this not just some grand hobby?'

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 29, 2015

Like Ghibli's features, Kingdom is a friendly, elegiac, approachable movie. But it lacks the studio's well-polished sense of energy and commitment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2015

A work this vast...should not remain a footnote in the Ghibli canon.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 30, 2014

Go behind the scenes at Studio Ghibli, see Miyazaki at work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2014

Sunada-san's privileged access doesn't uncover enough serendipitous magic or compelling drama to justify the two-hour runtime.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 5, 2014

If you're not enraptured with the work of Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and the rest of the artists at Ghibli, it may not be precisely what you're looking for, but Sanada captures something poetic about art and creativity ...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 28, 2014

This affectionate documentary is more of a bonbon for longtime fans than an entryway for a broader audience.

| Nov 28, 2014

The director's striking choice not to showcase sequences from Miyazaki's filmography underlines her subject's general disinterest in being deified as an icon.

| Nov 26, 2014

Riveting behind-the-scenes documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness offers some comfort for viewers facing a world without new feature films directed by anime legend Hayao Miyazaki.

| Nov 25, 2014

What makes The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness more than just a simple artifact, or a glorified DVD bonus feature, is the film's clear-eyed ability to see Ghibli through the eyes of the people who work there.

| Original Score: A | Nov 25, 2014

This seemingly ordinary biographical documentary about the retiring animation master unfolds, at a deceptively gentle pace, into a work of immense beauty.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 24, 2014

The documentary is hesitant to show the great work that resulted from Hayao Miyazaki's "grand hobby," never including clips from the classics referred to throughout.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 24, 2014