Then he spends the next 5 years twiddling around with them and decides that yes, apparently the world was right and they are in fact useful for animation.
Miyazaki retired like a dozen times, nobody believes him anymore. The last one was the last year or 2016, iirc.
It means, though, that their flirtations with CGI go back full two decades to right after the first Toy Story.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/lasseter/
I remember seeing once that Pixar had a life size Cat-bus from Miyazaki's Totoro installed in their studios.
The original home movie DVD release of Spirited Away was also introduced by Lasster.
There was one especially, (lamp, leaving Zeniba’s house) that stood out, but I don’t recall others? Give some hints?
It was too bold of me to say ‘can tell the scenes,‘ they are quite subtle—but you can make some guesses on a rewatch if you know about the CGI.