Amazon’s “Ronja” is definitely not an original Hayao Miyazaki styled animated movie… but his son Goro Miyazaki does a neat job of styling CGI to mimic Ghibli’s traditional pencil on paper. The series is directed by Gorō Miyazaki and animated by Polygon Pictures, and co-produced by Studio Ghibli.
My wife, kids and myself included are into the 6th episode and loving the story. The animation is starting to grow on us. Like I said, don’t expect a Ghibli/Miyazaki-style anime.. but it does stand on its own. The scenery and backgrounds are in the same spirit and in many moment have the Ghibli look. It’s the characters that are completely CGI from what I gather which make it different.
It is a beautiful story about a group of robbers and the daughter of their leader who is learning about herself and discovering things for the first time. A real treat to watch and I highly recommend it to Ghibli fans. It won’t disappoint. Even I was skeptic after watching the trailer – to be honest the trailer did not do the series any justice. Just dive into the first episode and you’ll see what I mean.
Official Trailer:
Start watching through Amazon : Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter