'The King and the Mockingbird': The animated masterpiece that inspired Studio Ghibli

Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.

His film took more than three decades to reach the screen. In 1946, Paul Grimault, then 41, began work on 'Le Roi et l'Oiseau' ('The King and the Mockingbird') with Jacques Prévert writing the screenplay. He finally saw it screened in 1979, at 74. The hand-drawn animation became a cult classic, insp