MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

The official My Neighbour Totoro DVD purchased and watched by me (© Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli/Toho – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Another movie watched in my Herculean task to view my entire DVD and video collection that has been quietly amassing for many years (I strongly suspect that they reproduce when I'm not looking!). On 18 November 2019, I watched one of the two  English-dubbed versions (see later) of My Neighbour Totoro, which is unquestionably among the most beloved in the series of classic Japanese animated movies produced by the massively-lauded (and thoroughly deservedly so) Studio Ghibli with legendary director Hayao Miyazaki.

The first Ghibli movie that I ever saw was Laputa: Castle In The Sky (which was also the first-ever Ghibli/Miyazaki movie), when it was shown on TV a few years after its original cinematic release in 1986. Since then, I have viewed the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away (awesome!) and also The Cat Returns (fascinating), subsequently purchasing them on DVD as well as a few others too, including My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke.

Directed as well as written by the afore-mentioned Hayao Miyazaki and originally released in 1988, My Neighbour Totoro soon reveals itself to be an idyllic homage to childhood and also to the simple wonders of the countryside as seen through the eyes of children, but which all-too-sadly and all-too-quickly are disappearing in today's increasingly secular, confrontational world. I remember reading some time ago that this movie was specifically created to be entirely devoid of conflict, just pure happiness and innocence, and for the first half of the film this is indeed the case.

It features a professor and his two children - a highly inquisitive and playful four-year-old girl named Mei and her older, protective sister Satsuki - moving into an old house in the countryside and the delightful rural joys that the girls experience there. The best of these is their discovery of nature spirits that only children can see, including a giant entity resembling an enormous rotund rabbit that calls himself Totoro. There is also a truly bizarre bus inside which Totoro steps in order to be transported through the countryside one rainy night, but which takes the form of a huge hollow cat with numerous legs and eyes that double up as head-lamps (you have to see it!). Eventually, I confess that I came close to nodding off, although not through boredom but rather because it really is SOOOO relaxing, so entirely conflict-free.

Then, abruptly, everything changes, at least for me, when Satsuki and Mei learn from a telegram sent to their father that their mother, recuperating in hospital from some never-disclosed illness, has taken a turn for the worse. Greatly shocked, the girls uncharacteristically argue with each other, causing little Mei to run away, seemingly seeking the hospital. Panic-stricken, Satsuki and everyone else locally set out to find her, but all to no avail, and when a small shoe thought to be one of Mei's is found floating on the surface of a deep pool it looks as if the movie is going to take a very dark turn indeed. Happily, however, Totoro and the cat bus come to the rescue, and I'm not giving away any spoilers here by saying that the movie has a happy ending - this film is far too well-known for any other outcome to be possible. But so much for it not containing any conflict!

Nevertheless, my Neighbour Totoro still a great film, although I warn you in advance that the title song played at the end is infuriatingly catchy - a day later and it is STILL going round and round and round and... inside my head! If you'd like to listen to it, click here – but be prepared to be regaled over and over and over again by this merciless if melodious earworm afterwards!

Incidentally, the dubbed English voices for the two girls were none other than Dakota and Elle Fanning in the Disney-dubbed version that I watched (there are two different English-dubbed versions of this movie, the movie itself being identical but the two versions containing different voice-dubbing casts, one provided by Disney in 2005 and the other by Fox in 1993).

The following English-dubbed (by Disney) trailer (click here) showcases very effectively this delightful animated movie, and features not only the monstrously big but awfully sweet Totoro himself but also the incredible cat-bus.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

The awesome cat bus from My Neighbour Totoro (© Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli/Toho – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)