Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば  Mimi wo Sumaseba, literally If You Listen Closely) is the ninth anime feature film produced by Studio Ghibli, and a manga by Aoi Hiiragi on which it was based.

The main character of Whisper of the Heart is a 14-year old girl named Shizuku Tsukishima who is in junior high school in Tama New Town, on the outskirts of Tokyo. She loves reading and writing in her spare time, but her parents wish she would pay more attention to her schoolwork and her upcoming high-school entrance exams. However, her love of reading fairy tales and her work in putting new words to the song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" consumes her time and energy.

One day Shizuku sees a chubby cat riding on the train with her. She follows the cat off the train and ends up at an unusual little curiosity shop. She meets the shop's owner, a kindly old man, who shows her to a unique grandfather clock which he is repairing. Only at 12 o'clock, a dwarf and an elf appear in the clock. The tales relates that the elven princess, who has been turned into a sheep, can only appear for a short time, at 12:00. The dwarf king, who is her love, appears to see her for that brief time each day. Shizuku also notices a small statue of a cat dressed in fine clothes, known as the Baron, who will eventually become the basis of the story Shizuku will write.

Later, she finds out that Sugimura, a classmate and old friend whom her best friend Yuko has a crush on, likes her. However, she says that they have to stay only friends.

Afterwards, outside the shop, Shizuku finds Seiji Amasawa, a boy from her school whose name she had first noticed on the cards of her library books: he had checked out many of the same books before she did. The shopkeeper is Seiji's grandfather. Seiji and Shizuku's first encounters are brief and uncomfortable, but eventually they grow close to one another. Shizuku learns that Seiji is working to become a violin-maker. Ashamed that she has no similar aspirations, Shizuku dedicates herself to writing, abandoning her studies and falls further behind at school, which causes conflict between her and her mother, father and older sister.

When Seiji leaves for Cremona, Italy, to begin a trial apprenticeship with an instrument-maker, Seiji's grandfather helps encourage Shizuku to complete her ambitious writing project. The movie's resolution comes as Shizuku finishes her story and decides to resume her schoolwork; Seiji later returns from his first stay in Italy after two months where he then proposes to Shizuku, who accepts joyfully.

In the film, Shizuku translates the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (originally co-written and recorded by John Denver) into Japanese for her school's chorus club. She also writes her own Japanese version of the song, called "Concrete Road," about her hometown in western Tokyo. These songs play a role at various points in the story. A recording of "Take Me Home, Country Roads," performed by Olivia Newton-John, plays during the movie's opening sequence, as does Youko Hanno's version at the end.

Over the course of the movie, Shizuku is working on a fantasy novel that revolves around a cat figurine, named The Baron, that she sees in Mr.Nishi's antique shop, which is named Chikyuu-ya (The Earth Shop). The short fantasy scenes that depict what she's writing in her novel were so popular with fans that Studio Ghibli released a movie based on them, The Cat Returns.

The clock in Mr. Nishi's shop has Porco Rosso (the title of another Studio Ghibli movie) inscribed on its dial.

Another Ghibli film - Pom Poko - was set at the same location, Tama New Town. Released a year earlier, it depicts the construction of the town in the Tama Hills from the viewpoint of Tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs). Many scenes depict real places, especially in the vicinity of Seiseki-Sakuragaoka Station on the Keio Line.

This is the only movie to be directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, who died in 1998 of an aneurysm at the age of 47. What made this event even more tragic is that Kondo was supposed to be the future of Studio Ghibli and the successor to Miyazaki and Takahata.

The fantastical backgrounds in the fantasy sequences of the movie were created by Japanese surrealist painter Naohisa Inoue and were directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The wood engraving of the imprisoned musician was created by Hayao Miyazaki's son Keisuke, a professional wood artist.

An English dub of this film was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on March 7, 2006. Turner Classic Movies televised both the dubbed and subbed versions on January 18, 2006 as part of their month-long celebration of Miyazaki (in honor of his birthday, January 5).

The English title, Whisper of the Heart, was created by Studio Ghibli and used on several officially licensed "character goods" released around the same time as the movie was released in theaters in Japan.

Japanese musical duo Chage and Aska's short music video titled "On Your Mark" by Studio Ghibli was also released along with this film.

This was the first Japanese film to use the Dolby Digital sound format.

Cary Elwes, the voice of the Baron in the English dubbing of the film, played the Baron with an older-sounding voice, to reflect the difference the character's age between this movie and The Cat Returns.

- From Wikipedia