Magnolia - another Paul Anderson movie. Tom Cruise, Phillip Hoffman and many others. Hard to describe the movie, it's funny it's touching, very interesting characters, multiple story lines. Perhaps needs a second viewing to understand completely. Three hours long, but very interesting.
Yes, he's probably the only one in anime that invites favorable (mainstream) comparisons with the big names in good old live-action films, and for good reason. (Though highly entertaining most of anime is juvenile junk best consumed by teenagers.) Having said that I've never been a big fan of Miyazaki's, for the same reason that I've never "got" the appeal of The Wizard of Oz. Make of that what you will. :twisted:
If you're still interested in anime there's one other name I recommend: Satoshi Kon, for my money the most talented animator of his generation who unfortunately succumbed to cancer in 2010. Though he left behind a very small oeuvre as a director (just 4 feature films and a TV series) all of them are worth viewing, even his least successful (final) feature Papr!ka (had to substitute for the "i" there). If you must pick just one of Kon's works make it Millennium Actress, a gorgeous portrait of the aging eponymous actress' life vs. cinema (you can see I dig this theme a lot).
Actually I am
not an anime fan. But I did enjoy
Spirited Away and the other two movies. I would not search out anime movies, but if someone recommends one as a really good movie, I'd certainly see it.
Speaking of which I'm guessing you've already seen Grave of the Fireflies, given your familiarity with Miyazaki's biggies. What about Barefoot Gen (the animated version, obviously, not the live-action one)? This movie (one of the many based on the Hiroshima bombing) is not a classic on par with Grave and the animation itself has dated to say the least, but it still features perhaps the single most devastating scene in all of anime. (I won't post spoilers, but this predictably happens shortly after the bombing.)
Yes, I have seen both
Grave of the Fireflies and
Barefoot Gen long ago. I remember thinking then that I never knew that an animation movie could seem so real. I can't remember having been shaken so much by a movie.
As far as
Wizard of Oz, yes, i did find it stretched a bit too much. I loved the starting, especially the song "Somewhere over the rainbow."