My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro - Tonari no Totoro-S1E1

My Neighbor Totoro_360P

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My Neighbor Totoro

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My Neighbor Totoro

I absolutely agree with Roger Ebert who called "My Neighbor Totoro", "One of the most beloved of all family films". Its colorfully bright and sparkling animation is enchanting. It is incredibly realistic and at the same time makes us along with two main characters, the young sisters ready for a miracle to happen any minute. The gentle story is touching, uplifting, funny, and tender without being overly sentimental or didactic. The film takes place in the early 50s, when 10-year-old Satsuki and her baby sister, curious and energetic 4-year-old Mei spend one summer in an old house in the country side with their University professor father while their mother recovers from a serious illness in the nearby hospital. The great master Hayao Miyazaki remembers well what it is like to be a child, to see magic in the everyday life and be always ready to encounter it. This ability usually disappears as the child becomes adult but it stays forever in a few chosen, and they become the visionary Artists - just like Miyazaki himself. The film is partially autobiographical for the writer/director/storyboard artist. "When Miyazaki and his brothers were children, his mother suffered from spinal tuberculosis for nine years, and spent much of her time hospitalized. It is implied, yet never revealed in the film, that Satsuki and Mei's mother also suffers from tuberculosis. He once said the film would have been too painful for him to make if the two protagonists were boys instead of girls." (From the IMDb film trivia) Totoro of the title is an adorable funny blue forest spirit who lives in the nest beneath a huge tree and makes the trees grow and the winds blow. Totoro becomes the friend and protector of the sisters and one day he sends them on the bus journey that is like nothing they and the viewers could ever imagine. I wish I could ride that cat bus. What a wild and kind imagination an artist should have to create it. How much happier we all are knowing that Hayao Miyazaki exists and makes his amazing films at the Studio Ghibli for which King Totoro is the mascot.

My problem with this movie is simple. There's just not enough conflict. I am a grown man who has never outgrown stuff made for children. I actually really like "Masha and the Bear" and "Charlie and Lola". But this movie just annoys me. The girls are happy in their new home, no one seems to be discontent or threatened, there is admittedly a sick mother but we only see her in a state of convalescence. It feels like a TV show aimed at young children right before bedtime but with the pretence of being worthy of a feature length running time. There is some stuff to like. There's some cuteness and a lot of well imagined sequences and images that feel instantly iconic (shame about the cheesy music) and I can appreciate that this movie isn't trying to be riveting story telling but something sweet, idyllic and simple. Totoru himself doesn't really do much and the climax feels really tacked-on. I thought Twilight had a tacked-on ending after not having nearly enough real conflict or high stakes but at least Twilight (in its defence) uses its climax to explore its major themes and is only the first part of a tetralogiy. Bland story, characters and themes aside, this could be the perfect movie for someone who had undergone a traumatic experience and is recovering in hospital. It's really not challenging at all except in how audaciously unchallenging it is. 5 year old me might have just about enjoyed parts of this. 10 year old me would have completely dismissed this movie for its lack of antagonist or a real story. it's not a classic to enjoy with your children.

This is supposedly one of the "Great Movies" according to Roger Ebert...My tone in the previous sentence should suffice for my review, but I feel like more needs to be said. My Neighbor Totoro isn't offensive, obnoxious, disturbing, annoying, or irritating in any way. And as Ebert continually points out in his review, it doesn't fall in line with a lot of clichés that are prevalent in American cartoons in terms of characterization or plot-line. This may all be true; but it doesn't make up for it's fatal flaw...it's boring. It's really really, boring. There is hardly any plot other then these 2 girls hanging around their house out in the country side. The title character makes his first appearance 30 minutes in, and only a couple of times after that. He doesn't do much either. In his debut scene he sleeps and yawns...how appropriate. Later he does some other stuff but it's not too exciting and perhaps only mildly so compared to the doldrum of the girls lives. I wasn't "enchanted", the world didn't seem that magical to me, and with the lack of any compelling plot I couldn't help but once again become baffled by the godly praise for this movie. The animation is OK but don't see why Miyazaki's work is considered to be THAT much better then everyone else's. Perhaps you have to be an anime aficionado to understand why. Perhaps you have to be an anime aficionado to love this movie. I can think of no other reason why. Granted, I'm 23 and cartoons don't hold the same appeal as they did 15 years ago. But that being said, I can't see myself even sitting through this 15 years ago. And as an adult, it doesn't seem to hold much value. There is no plot, the writing is forgettable, and I don't find it's artistic value to be any higher then that of any other anime. Bottom line, if you are an anime fan, you aren't even reading this because you own My Neighboro Totoro on DVD and are probably waiting for the special edition. However, if you are checking up on one of the "Great Movies" or if you a parent and want to show your kid something, I can't recommend it to you on either level.

I watched this movie when I was a kid, and while it never caught my attention as I do other commercial movies, I think it had a quiet and subtle effect on me over the years. Sometimes I think about that film, but I never knew why. So, after watching it again as an adult I realized why this movie stay within me: Totoro is a rare film that manages to capture the essence of a child's emotions and vision without being filtered through the adult's tendency to editorialize it, to insert a moral judgment, or to sugar coat it. Mei's behavior is naked, showing raw happiness as well as anger. Her movements are strong and her voice fierce, she thinks she lives in a world without limitations and not binded by adult's notion of etiquette. Satsuki is at a crossroads between adulthood and what remains of her innocence, we see her anxieties and we identify the world of the movie through her eyes. Totoro's physical characteristic is actually menacing and otherworldly, and our first impression of him (through the girls' eyes) is a natural mix of fear and amazement... the same reaction any human would have when confronting something foreign. But then something magical happens: Totoro moves and behaves just like Mei. We identify with this raw, pure energy of joy and imagination. That Studio Ghibli managed to express this idea visually, through character design, storytelling, and animation, is a rare and special accomplishment. This effect cannot be described during a script meeting with a committee of marketing execs. A typical American studio would be worried about presenting its main character as frightening, would redesign Totoro as a "cuter" character as a safe strategy, and would certainly make the father more of a one-dimensional, stereotypical "adult" character for dramatic purposes. But in this movie, we see the background story of the characters by deceptively simple closeup shot of the pebbles in the stream, or the details of the bathtub. But the most telling moment of the movie is actually early on: when the girls tried to push down the rotting wooden support of the house. At first only playing around, they then gave a serious effort to try to bring it down. But it doesn't fall. Seeing that the support stays, they simply move on. That establishes the tone and the world they inhabit: Life is unpredictable. Adults must learn to expect the worst to happen in order to deal daily with the real world. But the child has not yet fully learned this skill, so through their eyes, we see what we were, and what was important to us, long buried but not forgotten. Kids should see this movie as an alternative to the shallow mainstream entertainment. Whether they like it or not is irrelevant; its lasting impact is worth more that the toy of the month. Adults should see this movie to re-look at themselves and what they were, who they are now, and what they want to become. It doesn't preach anything, it's a simple story that you will enjoy when you can stop and have time for yourself and for the people you care about.