MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS MOVIE

This film by the genius Hayao Miyazaki takes us to the ordinary countryside where everything is magical and possible if we are young and innocent enoughвЂ¦ and have a mysterious allie by our side.ДЄlthough the film was out in 1988 and deals with a family a few years after the Second World War, Tonari no Totoro has become a timeless classic. This is just what Satsuki and Mei did in Tonari no Totoro (My neighbor Totoro). If we were in Japan, this would be the perfect school-less season to explore the world.

In Japan, this is also the time for fireworks and an incredibly humid heat! So, letвЂ™s imagine for a while that we are all back to our childhoods. вќ‰вЂ™My Neighbour TotoroвЂ™ is available as a Dual Format Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal as part of the Studio Ghibli Collection, boasting a wealth of special features.Everyone, itвЂ™s summer! It is time to go to the beach or simply outside the city. This mixture of nostalgic whimsy and crafted locations means that, unlike any other film IвЂ™ve seen and despite the fact it is an animated fantasy, by watching вЂMy Neighbour TotoroвЂ™, I had the sense of having experienced rural Japan. The landscape and environment from the plan of the village, the distance from the hospital, the layout of the buildings and the way the weather changes from day-to-day has two effects: firstly to firmly ground the viewer in a relatable world, and secondly to make the fantasy realms of Totoro, for example the nest under the tree, stand out. Miyazaki goes one step further and uses the relationship between the weather, the health of the mother and the fecundity of the natural world where the children live to provide a commentary on the environment and how we can best protect it. The consistency extends to the almost Andrei Tarkovsky-like use of rain, water and weather to give the film an extra, elemental texture. When the children explore you have the feeling the roads and paths they traverse are planned and mapped by the artists. What I took away from the film though was its focus on nature and the way it created a consistent and believable village for the setting. The rendering of the elderly characters with large features and blemishes, emphasising the passing of time, seems to be a common aspect of Ghibli movies and, whilst to me they feel grotesquely disproportioned and actually a little frightening, I think the intention is, sometimes, merely to celebrate their age and the wisdom that comes with it. The human characters, at least the elderly ones, appear misshapen, but I get the feeling that this is a cultural dislocation. Part of this comes from MiyazakiвЂ™s focus on texture from the soft fur and cavernous mouth of the title creature to the weird, fur-lined interior of the cat. However, whilst it doesnвЂ™t have the same sinister undertones and the same sense of threat as вЂSpirited AwayвЂ™, there is still something disconcerting, something alien about the fantasy elements in the film. There are hints of Lewis Carroll in the creatures and in the plot, the younger sister at one point literally falls down what could be a rabbit hole and there is something distinctly Cheshire-like about Catbus.

Totoro in particular has that degree of comical charm, for example when he shelters beneath a ridiculously small umbrella, to give him that feeling of safety and to dispel any feelings of threat towards the children. The creatures in the story, including Totoro itself, a colony of sooty sprites and a giant cat bus, are weird but not creepy in the way that they are in MiyazakiвЂ™s 2001 fantasy вЂSpirited AwayвЂ™.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS MOVIE

ItвЂ™s a magical film, as soft, gentle and charming as Isao TakahataвЂ™s вЂGrave of the FirefliesвЂ™, another Ghibli movie from the same year, is edgy, profound and unsettling. Her older sister, Satsuki, enlists the help of Totoro and Catbus to help her find Mei and to complete her journey to the hospital.

Their mother takes a turn of the worse, so Mei, the youngest of the two sisters, sets out on foot to go to the hospital to take an ear of corn to help her get better but gets hopelessly lost. Once there they explore the village and woodland around their house and discover a variety of spirit creatures including the large and gentle Totoro of the title and a cat who is also a bus. It tells the story of two sisters who, with their father, move to the Japanese countryside to be close to their mother who is in hospital. вЂMy Neighbor TotoroвЂ™, directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1988, is a Studio Ghibli animated film for children. But when you suddenly move from a lighted room to a dark one, you canвЂ™t see for a second, and thatвЂ™s when the dust bunnies come out.вЂќ

вќ‰ An appreciation of вЂMyВ Neighbour TotoroвЂ™, the heart-warming 1988 cultВ film from anime giant Studio Ghibli.

My neighbor totoro characters