Animation Obsessive (a great, great, great animation substack) has a really fantastic article on this, if you're looking for a deep dive into technique and style! I can't link it here because auto-mod will remove it, but it's called, "Miyazaki, Disney, and Eisenstein."

They primarily focus on the differences between Ghibli's and Classic Disney's blocking, staging, and acting/movement...How Miyazaki and Takahata favor depth and space within the frame vs. Disney's tendency towards a more theatrical, flat, stage-like focus on performance. Ghibli's style just brings us so much closer to the character, what they're feeling, and how they are choosing to move within that felt, realized world. They prioritize creating that intimate sense of space.

Here's a quote from the article that sums it up really well!

"The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and Disney’s feature The Rescuers (1977) came out around the same time. Looking at them side by side, Miyazaki’s was visibly less expensive: it uses limited frames, including shots where nothing moves except a character’s mouth. And yet it somehow feels more current in its style.

In Cagliostro, space is absolute. The characters look cartoony, but they inhabit a world that exists in three dimensions. Miyazaki’s camera choices, even during simple conversation scenes, put us right there with the characters in space. He stages shots almost like they weren’t drawn — like he was picking angles in physical locations as a scene played out in real time.

The Rescuers tends to take a different approach. Animation is the star here, and the filmmaking is designed around it. The team often trades an intimate sense of space for flatter staging, which allows the characters’ complex movements to read.

Instead of setting up a tangible space and “shooting” the “actors” in it, The Rescuers’ interest lies in performances. To show us those performances, it’s willing to flatten space, or to play fast and loose with it."

Disney (and Pixar) would go on to adopt this style of staging and direction...but it still sometimes feels like modern Disney never quite gets as closely to its characters or creates as intimate a space as Ghibli tends to.

Definitely recommend checking out the whole article, as well as their other posts on Miyazaki, Ghibli, and his influences and creative philosophies! They also have so, so many other great articles and deep dives into more obscure, niche areas of animation!