{"id":3172,"date":"2009-06-14T16:07:42","date_gmt":"2009-06-14T20:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/?p=3172"},"modified":"2010-09-05T21:52:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T01:52:17","slug":"my-neighbor-totoro-anime-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/2009\/06\/14\/my-neighbor-totoro-anime-review\/","title":{"rendered":"My Neighbor Totoro&#8211;Anime Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/image\/stars\/4o5.gif\" alt=\"4 Stars\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/TotoroAtBusStop.png\" alt=\"Totoro at bus stop\" title=\"Totoro at bus stop\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3207\" \/>This may not be Hayao Miyazaki&#8217;s most profitable film, but it is probably the most beloved. Totoro toys and memorabilia are perennial favorites, and his image appears on the Studio Ghibli logo. The film is a family classic, appealing to even the youngest children, but still interesting to adults.<\/p>\n<div class=\"Character\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--> <\/p>\n<ul class=\"ItemList\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Original Title<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\"><em>Tonari no Totoro<\/em><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Genres<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Fantasy, Adventure<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Languages<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">English, Japanese with subtitles, French<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Contents<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">86 minutes plus bonus material in a 2-DVD set.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Director<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Hayao Miyazaki<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Screenplay<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Hayao Miyazaki<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Art Director<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Kazuo Oga<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Animation Director<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Yoshiharu Satou<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Music<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Joe Hisaishi<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Executive Producer<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Yasuyoshi Tokuma<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Producer<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Toru Hara<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Animation Studio<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Studio Ghibli<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Released<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">1988<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"Item\">Region 1 Publisher<\/div>\n<div class=\"Description\">Walt Disney Home Entertainment<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>My Neighbor Totoro<\/em> has a rather odd history. Apparently it&#8217;s backers had little faith in its commercial potential. Financing was obtained only as part of a joint production deal along with Isao Takahata&#8217;s <em>Grave of the Fireflies<\/em>, with which it was originally shown on a double bill.<\/p>\n<p>I am dumbfounded by the thought of this combination. <em>Grave of the Fireflies<\/em> is a great classic in it&#8217;s own right, but it is also one of the darkest and saddest movies ever made, and not something that most Americans would consider suitable for children. The idea of combining it with the cheerful, upbeat <em>Totoro<\/em> is mind-boggling.<\/p>\n<h3>Parental Advisory<\/h3>\n<p>The movie contains nothing objectionable&#8211;unless you object to the Japanese tradition of parents and young children bathing together (and even that is presented in a pretty innocuous way.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.haibane.info\/\">Fledgling Otaku<\/a> ended up calling this movie <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haibane.info\/2006\/04\/21\/my-crazed-obsession-totoro\/\">&#8220;crack for little kids&#8221;<\/a> after his two-year-old daughter insisted on watching it over and over and over again until her parents, to preserve their sanity, conspired to &#8220;lose&#8221; the disc.<\/p>\n<p>My theory is that this movie hits a sweet spot for very young children; it is just scary enough for them but not so scary as to be really disturbing. It touches on some of their deepest fears (the mother is in the hospital and everyone is worried and there are big hairy monsters in the woods) but is ultimately reassuring. <a href='javascript:void(null);' onclick=\"s_toggleDisplay(document.getElementById('SID383539116'), this, 'Show &#9660;', 'Hide &#9650;');\">Show &#9660;<\/a><\/p>\n<div id='SID383539116' style='display:none;'>\nThe monsters are actually friendly; the mother comes home and everyone is happy.\n<\/div>\n<p>It is not too hard to make a show that will appear to very young children, but it takes real skill to do so without annoying older children and boring adults to tears. In this case Mayazaki succeeds in making a movie that adults will enjoy watching&#8211;once or maybe twice.<\/p>\n<h3>Premise and Characters<\/h3>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MovingVan.png\" alt=\"Moving Van\" title=\"Moving Van\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3198\" \/>In the late 1950s <strong>Tatsuo Kusakabe<\/strong>, a professor at a Tokyo university, moves his family into a tumbledown farmhouse in Tokorozawa, which is now a built-up suburb of Tokyo, but at that time was an isolated farming community <a href=\"#trust_movement\">[1]<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/SatsukiAndMei.png\" alt=\"Satsuki and Mei\" title=\"Satsuki and Mei\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3203\" \/>His daughter <strong>Satsuki<\/strong> is cheerful, brave and enthusiastic. Her little sister <strong>Mei<\/strong> is a handful. She follows Satsuki around and tends to get into trouble.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/YasukoKusakabe.png\" alt=\"Mother\" title=\"Mother\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3188\" \/>The girls&#8217; mother <strong>Yasuko<\/strong> is in a nearby hospital with some unspecified illness (identified as tuberculosis in the novelization.)\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/FarmHouse.png\" alt=\"Farmhouse\" title=\"Farmhouse\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3189\" \/>Not only is the farmhouse decrepit, but some things about it are rather unsettling.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MeiAndMakkuroKurosuke.png\" alt=\"Mei and Makkuro Kurosuke\" title=\"Mei and Makkuro Kurosuke\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3195\" \/>There are acorns scattered on the floor, and the place is infested with strange little sooty creatures that the girls call <em>&#8220;makkuro kurosuke&#8221;<\/em> (&#8220;dark-black black things&#8221;), which it seems only they can see.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Obaachan.png\" alt=\"Obaachan\" title=\"Obaachan\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3199\" \/>Professor Kusakabe hires an elderly local woman to act as housekeeper and baby-sitter. The girls call her <em>obaa-chan<\/em> (Granny). The subtitles call her <strong>Nanny<\/strong>. She tells the girls that the black things are <em>susuwatari<\/em> and assures them that they will soon leave.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Kanta.png\" alt=\"Kanta\" title=\"Kanta\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3192\" \/>Nanny&#8217;s grandson <strong>Kanta<\/strong> is a rude little boy who doesn&#8217;t like girls.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MeiAndChibiTotoro.png\" alt=\"Mei and Chibi-Totoro\" title=\"Mei and Chibi-Totoro\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3194\" \/>While playing by herself in the garden Mei sees a strange little creature with ears like a rabbit.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MeiLookingUnderHouse.png\" alt=\"Mei looking under the house\" title=\"Mei looking under the house\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3197\" \/>She chases it and it runs under the house. Whoops, there goes another one, carrying a bag of acorns!\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/TotorosAndTree.png\" alt=\"Totoros and Tree\" title=\"Totoros and Tree\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3209\" \/>The two creatures run into the forest with Mei in hot pursuit. They run to a giant camphor tree wrapped with a <em>shimenawa<\/em> (a grass rope used in the Shinto religion to mark off a sacred boundary.)\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MeiAndBigHairyThing.png\" alt=\"Mei and the big hairy thing\" title=\"Mei and the big hairy thing\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3193\" \/>The two creatures dive into a hole beneath the roots of the tree. Mei tumbles in after them and finds herself in a strange grassy place where a great big hairy thing is sleeping.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/OoTotoroAndMei.png\" alt=\"Oo-Totoro and Mei\" title=\"Oo-Totoro and Mei\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3201\" \/>The hairy thing wakes up and seems bemused but not unfriendly. Mei calls him &#8220;Totoro&#8221;, a mispronunciation of <em>tororu<\/em> (troll).\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/MeiAsleepInClearing.png\" alt=\"Mei asleep in clearing\" title=\"Mei asleep in clearing\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3196\" \/>Satsuki and her father search for Mei and find her asleep in a clearing. Mei tells them about her adventure, but to her frustration she can&#8217;t find the giant tree anywhere.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/FatherComfortingMei.png\" alt=\"Father comforting Mei\" title=\"Father comforting Mei\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3191\" \/>Her father tells her that she probably encountered the spirit of the forest. He says that they should go to the local shrine to pay their respects.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/SacredTreeInShrine.png\" alt=\"Sacred Tree at the shrine\" title=\"Sacred Tree at the shrine\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3202\" \/>At the shrine they see the same sacred tree that Mei remembered, except that it doesn&#8217;t seem to have a hole under the roots. They all thank the spirit of the forest for taking care of Mei.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/SatsukiWriting.png\" alt=\"Satsuki writing\" title=\"Satsuki writing\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3212\" \/>Satsuki writes to her mother about Mei&#8217;s adventure. She wishes that she could meet Totoro too.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/TotoroInTree.png\" alt=\"Totoro in tree\" title=\"Totoro in tree\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3208\" \/>And perhaps Totoro does indeed have further plans for the two of them.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Character\">\n<\/div>\n<h3>Other versions<\/h3>\n<p>This review is only for the 2-disc DVD set released in 2006 by Disney. You may encounter an earlier DVD release by Fox Video, which I would not recommend; the picture is cut down to a 4:3 aspect ratio and it includes only an English dub, with no Japanese soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p>There is a sequel of sorts, but you would have to go to Japan to see it. A 13-minute short called <em>Mei to Konekobasu<\/em> (Mei and the Kittenbus) is shown only at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nausicaa.net\/miyazaki\/museum\/\">Studio Ghibli Museum<\/a>, and of course is only in Japanese. <\/p>\n<h3>Links<\/h3>\n<p>ANN Encyclopedia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.animenewsnetwork.com\/encyclopedia\/anime.php?id=534\">entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wikipedia <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Neighbor_Totoro\">entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nausicaa.net\/miyazaki\/totoro\/faq.html\">FAQ<\/a> at Nausicaa.net.<\/p>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p><a name=\"trust_movement\">[1]<\/a> An organization called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.totoro.or.jp\/\">Totoro&#8217;s Home National Trust Movement<\/a> is dedicated to preserving the few remaining natural areas in Tokorozawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This may not be Hayao Miyazaki&#8217;s most profitable film, but it is probably the most beloved. Totoro toys and memorabilia are perennial favorites, and his image appears on the Studio&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/2009\/06\/14\/my-neighbor-totoro-anime-review\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[249,289,250],"class_list":["post-3172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","category-movies","tag-miyazaki","tag-my-neighbor-totoro","tag-studio-ghibli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3172"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5136,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3172\/revisions\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}