Studio Ghibli films have produced some of the most beautiful settings in animation history.

Some of Studio Ghibli's animation hallmarks are their bright, saturated colors and layered details that make their settings look like paintings and fine art dollhouses. These beautiful, sweeping landscapes and detailed interiors allow viewers to find something new and delightful with every rewatch.

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Studio Ghibli masters floral-heavy cottage settings, but they don't stop there. The Ghibli team creates worlds across earth and sea and sky, full of whimsy and breathtaking color palettes. Some settings are filled with movement and esoteric details, while others let the wash of rich hues speak for themselves. Each setting feels like a land that audiences could rise from their seats and step right into.

Spirited Away's magical spirit world is filled with enchantment in every corner. Even the nearby garden has subtle magic as its flowers bloom all at once, regardless of the time of year. Haku leads the protagonist Chihiro through the gardens just as the film leads up to a pinch point.

The pink, white, and yellow garden is filled with plants from all four seasons: camellia, oleander, rhododendron, and Japanese plum flowers. As they move through the garden, the heavy blooms wrap over the two heroes in a way that is both comforting and otherworldly, giving a sense that they're once more moving from one realm to another.

Hort Town, the port in Tales from Earthsea, once dealt in selling spells and is now populated with retired, expelled magicians. The port city is filled with bright colors, ships in its canal, and people on the move in the busy marketplace.

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Sunlight drenches Hort Town, reflecting brightly off the waters, painting the sky in striations of yellow and orange at the end of the business day. Huge, ancient columns and arches loom like ruins over the rest of the stone architecture and red roof tiles.

The Laputian robot in Castle in the Sky is a gentle giant who shows his soft, protective nature by offering the two protagonist children a poppy flower. The clearing where this exchange happens is lush and green, surrounded by a canopy of trees. Spires of sunlight float down, spilling onto the water the children and the robot are standing in.

The scene brings to mind the word petrichor – the fresh green scent that lingers after it's rained. The sweet scene highlights how the robot is a steward of nature who loves to take care of plants and forest animals.

The Cat Kingdom is a parallel world totally inhabited by cats and ruled by their king in The Cat Returns. It's an elysian land of rolling hills and open sky where the cats live off of fish and mice, cuddle up in cozy huts, feast at the castle, and romp around in tall grass.

The castle at its center has tiered towers like the layers of a wedding cake, accompanied by several tall spires, and a mote surrounding the royal home. The kingdom is bathed in soft yellow light, making the Cat Kingdom an ethereal pastel dream.

The wizard Howl Pendragon is a clutter-bug who likes his things just so in Howl's Moving Castle. When he retreats to his bedroom to hide from the world, Sophie follows him and finds him in his inner sanctum stuffed with whirring celestial objects, glittering jewels, tangling plants, childhood toys, and humming talismans.

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The room is dark, lit with greenish lighting which adds to the arcane atmosphere. All these details come together to showcase more of Howl's character and backstory. This scene is so evocative that fans have used Howl's bedroom as inspiration for interior design in their own homes.

Gods and little spirits called Kodama fill the ancient in Princess Mononoke. Gigantic, gnarled trees cast the place in blueish shadow, and the antlered Forest Spirit watches over all the inhabitants. When Ashitaka is injured, the wolf girl San brings him to a pool there that's sacred to the Forest Spirit, laying him between the clear water and mossy banks.

San plucks a leafy plant and sticks it in the moss, in hopes that the Forest Spirit will heal the wounded prince. Though the audience would naturally be worried about Ashitaka, San's purposeful motions and the peaceful splendor of the forest change the tone of the scene, giving it an air of healing and sacred space.

In My Neighbor Totoro, the little girl Mei moves to a new town with her older sister and father; the girls' father encourages them to explore the house and surrounding yard. As Mei explores the yard, she comes across two small Totoro spirits carrying a sack of acorns. They lead her into a thicket that forms a long tunnel of woven branches. The thicket leads down into a hole at the base of a tree.

Mei falls down the hole and lands in a cozy hollow made of moss and leaves; there she finds the big Totoro sleeping in an alcove. Mei promptly climbs up the creature's rounded belly and snuggles him. If there was an ideal scene to crawl into and fall asleep, it'd be this one.

Kiki's Delivery Service begins in a small town where Kiki's family lives in an ivy-covered cottage with a sprawling garden full of foxglove, morning glory vine, larkspur, and roses. Kiki's witch mother does her work, mixing potions in her workshop full of hanging potted plants, dried herbs, florals, and beakers containing colorful liquids.

The cottage and potion workshop makes the perfect fairy tale setting for Kiki's mother to assist townsfolk with her magic. It's easy to understand why Kiki is in such a rush to set out on her own, so she can carve out a place for herself in a new town, the same as her mother did.

Ponyo tells the story of a little goldfish who wants to be a human girl. Ponyo lives under the sea with her magician father who works in a cavern carved to look like octopus tentacles. Translucent jellyfish and twisting eels are their neighbors in the waters lit bright green, purple, and yellow.

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When Ponyo brings about an enchanted tsunami, the sea overtakes the local town. After the storm, fish swim in neat lines like automobiles along streets that are now completely underwater. Neighborhoods of houses are submerged, and laundry hangs in yards ironically on their lines. Small motorboats float along the water above the house roofs like large birds in the uncanny new world.

The Secret of Arrietty's titular main character is a young Borrower girl who's tiny enough to travel through dollhouses and air vents. Arrietty decorates her bedroom with things she's taken from the natural world, and tiny items she's borrowed from human houses.

Every inch of her bedroom is filled with something lovely, like stalks of wheat, bright red berries, drooping purple flowers, tubes of paint and bright buttons tacked to the wall like decorative plates. There are a few items in her room which were obviously crafted specifically for her, like a hardwood bookshelf painted around the edges with vines that's small enough to fit her books, a wooden desk, and a comfy patchwork quilt.

Next: 10 Anime With The Best Background Art (That Aren't Studio Ghibli)

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