AP Interview: Oscar-nominated auteur paints solitary spirit

Luscious hand-drawn animation is the trademark of Japan's renowned Studio Ghibli, where the film's director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, worked for years.

Anna's foster mother is so worried about how Anna has closed up within herself she sends her to spend her summer vacation to seaside Hokkaido, northern Japan, to be with relatives living in a quaint cottage next to a marshy lake and green hills.

The tear-jerker ending involves a separation that's inevitable, but with a twist that leaves the heroine more at peace with herself, while teaching how some important connections endure.

Yonebayashi chose to make the images of the surroundings and movements of the characters more realistic, to accentuate the dream-like quality of the scenes with Marnie, he said.

Yonebayashi recently left Ghibli to pursue his own projects but worked on its earlier films, such as "Princess Mononoke" and "Ponyo," directed by studio founder Hayao Miyazaki, who won an Oscar in 2003 for "Spirited Away" and an honorary Academy Award in 2014.

Over the years, it has stuck to the labor-intensive method of drawing by hand, steering away from computer graphics and other technology increasingly the standard these days.