My Neighbor Totoro (Two-Disc Special Edition)

And don't be put off because it is "japanese animation." This is not your father's japanese animation. The images of the tranquil countryside are sumptuous. Miazaki's attention to the little details of life, like a leaf floating in a stream or raindrops tapping an umbrella, evoke the simpler, purer times of childhood. The children's discovery of the totoro spirits in the old camphor tree recalls a time in every child's life when magic seems possible in the mundane world. As with other Miyazaki films, there is a thrilling flying sequence. However, this film is more appropriate for younger viewers than most of his other works, some of which are decidedly adult in nature despite the fact that they are animated.

As the mother of a toddler, I really appreciate the refusal to rely on cliche villians to keep the plot moving. However, I should warn other parents considering this video that the conflicts used to keep the plot moving -- the children's discovery of and search for the dust bunny and totoro spirits and Mei's desire to see her sick mother in the hospital which causes her to lose her way in the countryside -- might be upsetting to the littlest viewers without some parental company and discussion. Otherwise, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie whether you're 2 or 200.


Totororrific!   June 29, 2001
Shadowfire (College Park, MD)
29 out of 29 found this review helpful

This is an excellent childhood story unrivaled by any since "Peter Pan". The plot involves Satsuke, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, moving into the country with her father and younger sister Mei, where she discovers a child's realm of wonder and make-believe running in parallel to the adults' mundane everyday existence. The family's rickety cottage is filled with easily frightened dust bunnies, and deep within the tangle of roots and branches, in a safe hiding place only a child can access, Totoro, a benign forest creature, makes its lair.

The story is a real jewel, simply, elegantly told. The art is of extremely high quality, excellently detailed, bright and clean. The characters are especially well-depicted, complete with expressive body language and realistically animated. In part because of the excellent dub, they are all sympathetic and deeply human, instantly recognizable as real people around us.

Especially evocative is the portrayal of the children's make-believe world, full of things and places that are there only if you believe in them, like the giant Totoro and his entourage of two tiny, roly-poly furballs, and the magnificent "cat-bus" with great shining eyes and two mice announcing the next stop - the exact place you want to go.

A fantastic, enchanting examination of a child's mentality, that is also a mainstay family film.


Another masterpiece by the world's greatest animator   December 26, 2003
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I have been a huge Miyazaki fan for nearly twenty years now, but I am ashamed to admit that I have only now seen MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO for the first time. The reason is a good one, as reasons go: it was the last important film by Miyazaki that I had not yet seen, and I was saving it for a special occasion. I love seeing again films that I have loved the first time through, but there is always a special magic to seeing a film for the first time. Unfortunately, I now no longer have any Miyazaki films to see that I haven't already seen (at least until he finishes his work-in-progress, which has been given the tentative English title HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE). Fortunately, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO was worth the weight.

How does this film compare with Miyazaki's finest films? This is a hard question, because he has a large number clustered at the top, all of them excellent. I would be hard pressed to say this was better or worse than any of a number of others. However, each film is distinguished from the others by the mood and tone of the film. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO may be the gentlest and most peaceful of all his films. True, the girls have moved to the countryside with their father because their mother is in a nearby hospital recovering from a rather vague illness, and the forest is haunted, but the illness is never perceived as especially worrisome (except near the end, when a slight cold prevents her making a brief visit home, provoking a crisis with her daughters), and the spirits in the forest are remarkably benign and benevolent. There is nothing like the ecological apocalypse in THE PRINCESS MONONOKE and NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, or the parents who have been transformed into swine or threatening spirits of SPIRITED AWAY, or the armed conflict in CASTLE IN THE SKY. The world in this film is a loving world, all the way down to a remarkable creature that is a cross between Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat and a school bus (literally).

Miyazaki's animation is truly in a league of its own, and I mean that as strongly as possible. It has been decades since the Disney studios were capable of a fraction of the more challenging sequences that Miyazaki seemingly animates with ease. For instance, the wind and storm the first night the children spend in their new home display effects that Disney hasn't attempted since the more marvelous scenes in BAMBI. The way the wind is portrayed as moving through the tops of the trees, the hint of spraying mist, the manner in which the wind moves like a wave over the grass, the shuttering of the house under the assault of the air, are all things of remarkable artistry. Even more remarkable is that after this brief display of mastery, Miyazaki doesn't feel the need to build a huge storm with rain and lightening, but has the wind subside and give way to brilliant white clouds sailing across a moonlit and starry black sky.

Of all Miyazaki's extraordinary gifts as an animator and a storyteller, his greatest virtue might be his patience, and this is something he holds in common with many of the Japanese animators. American animated films are almost always frenetic affairs, in a great rush to fill the screen with activity, and in a hurry to get to the next part of the story. American animated films seem to be more interested in where they are going than in how they are getting there, while for Miyazaki the journey is the far more important part of the film. Certainly one reason for this is the distrust of the American film industry of the patience of the viewers, as if they are in abject terror of small children squirming in their seats if the story doesn't get a move on. Miyazaki, on the other hand, respects his viewers, and is confident that they won't give up on a film simply because the story moves at a steady pace. In MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, one of the sisters will begin to enter a room, look from one side to the other, take a step, look around again, and gradually and slowly discover what is inside. In many American films, a child would simply explode into the room and that would be it. As a result, every moment of the film becomes a discovery of marvelous and wonderful things.

I would say that this is a very special film by a very special filmmaker, except for the fact that for Hayao Miyazaki special seems to be the norm.


not enough stars for this movie   October 26, 1999
quynh tran (qatran@emial.msn.com) (San Jose, California)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

As parents, we've been buying lot of Disney animated movies for our kids (9 and 2 year old). Then one day we saw this cute litle creature on the cover of this Japanese video cover, I decided to buy it and what an investment that was. From that momemnt on we fell in love with every single charecter of the movie, yes, there is no need for a villain in this movie, no bad guys, and the movie still great, Disney should take note of this. Totoro came into our family life such as a fresh breeze and gave us a total new look on kid's movie, more magical than any Disneyesque stuffs we saw in the past. The story was so original, the rural Japan backgound and the school scene reminded me Viet Nam of my youth ( yes , Viet Nam, when there was no fighting nearby). I wept when the kids cried and laughed throghuout the movie, specially my 2 year old. She must watch it every night before she can sleep.


Very Nice Story and Beautiful Animation   January 22, 2000
D. Blackdeer (Kansas)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Japanese animated feature about two young girls who meet a supernatural creature, or spirit, named "Totoro." Director Miyazaki's talents shine in this movie with beautiful animation and simple pleasures. The story is set in the late 1950's when a college professor moves to the country with his two daughters who are approximately five and eight years of age. The family is happy for the most part, but their mother is confined to a hospital for an illness not identified in the story. The girls are enchanted with their new home, an old spacious house situated in the country, surrounded by farms and forests. Unusual events begin to take place with mysterious little creatures running around the house and strange winds and noises outside the house at night. Eventually the girls discover Totoro, a large mythical creature who looks like a cross between a bear and rabbit; he's big! Mei, the youngest of the two girls, meets him first and she's the one who names him "Totoro." Satsuki, the older sister, meets Totoro later in the film while waiting for her father at a lonely bus-stop during an evening rainstorm, which is probably the most enjoyable scene in the movie. With Totoro are his two little brothers, miniature versions of himself, and a giant cat who looks like a bus. Totoro and the giant Catbus come to the rescue when Mei is lost in the country after running off in anguish to look for her mother at the hospital, and Satsuki is in dispair trying to find her sister. The story is simple and it's enchanting. Disney fans may love it or hate it for being a different form of animation and story-telling. I personally enjoy it very much because it's an original story and it's a nice break from American animated features that always seem to have inanimate objects dancing around and singing to a Hollywood soundtrack. The American-released VHS version has an english-dubbed voice-track that is pretty well done, unfortunately it is not letter-boxed and the music soundtrack has been muffled for whatever reason. The original Japanese version is letter-boxed, providing Miyzaki's original vision, which is quite good, and the instrumental soundtrack is at full-strength, which adds a lot to the movie. Unfortunately there are no english subtitles available. Hopefully a DVD release will give American customers the best of both versions soon.