My Neighbor Totoro

Tonari no Totoro

Japan

1988

86 Min

Color

1.85:1

Japanese

Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
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CAST Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto, Tanie Kitabayashi, Hitoshi Takagi, Yûko Maruyama, Machiko Washio, Reiko Suzuki, Masashi Hirose, Toshiyuki Amagasa, Shigeru Chiba, Naoki Tatsuta, Tarako, Tomohiro Nishimura, Chie Kôjiro, Daiki Nakamura, Yûko Mizutani, Akiko Hiramatsu, Ikue Ootani

MUSIC Joe Hisaishi, Kaiulani Kidani, Eugene H. Saburi

ANIM Masaaki Endo, Makiko Futaki, Junko Ina, Yoshinori Kanada, Hidetoshi Kaneko, Toshio Kawaguchi, Shinji Kimura, Komasa, Katsuya Kondô, Tsuyoshi Matsumuro, Hajime Matsuoka, Yuko Matsuura, Toshio Nozaki, Kazuo Oga, Kiyomi Ota, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Shinji Otsuka, Yoshiharu Sato, Masako Shinohara, Makoto Shiraishi, Kiyoko Sugawara, Yasuko Tachiki, Hideko Tagawa, Yôji Takeshige, Keiko Tamura, Makoto Tanaka, Sadahiko Tanaka, Tsukasa Tannai, Hitomi Tateno, Akira Yamagawa, Hirômi Yamakawa, Masaki Yoshizaki

SOUND Kazutoshi Satou, Shigeharu Shiba

Synopsis

This superbly animated children’s tale is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan’s most beloved animators. The story follows Satsuke and Mai, two young girls who find their new country home is in a mystical forest inhabited by a menagerie of mystical creatures called Totoros. They befriend O Totoro, the biggest and eldest Totoro, who is also the king of the forest. As their girls’ mother lies sick in the hospital, O Totoro brings the sisters on a magical adventure but also helps them to understand the realities of life. Like most films released by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, this family-oriented feature has a powerful ecological theme.

Director

Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking animation in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan. The Walt Disney Company’s commitment to introduce the films to the rest of the world will let more people appreciate the high-quality works he has given the movie-going public.

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tôkyô on January 5, 1941. He started his career in 1963 as an animator at the studio Toei Douga studio, and was subsequently involved in many early classics of Japanese animation. From the beginning, he commanded attention with his incredible drawing ability and the seemingly endless stream of movie ideas he proposed.

In 1971, he moved to the A Pro studio with Isao Takahata, then to Nippon Animation in 1973, where he was heavily involved in the World Masterpiece Theater TV animation series for the next five years. In 1978, he directed his first TV series, “Future Boy Conan” (1978) (Conan, The Boy in Future), then moved to Tôkyô Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first movie, the classic Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). In 1984, he released Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), based on the manga (comic) of the same title he had started two years before. The success of the film led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli (Sutajio Jiburi), at which Miyazaki has since directed, written, and produced many other films with Takahata and, more recently, Toshio Suzuki. All of these films enjoyed critical and box office successes. In particular, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997) received the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing (about USD$150 million) domestic film in Japan’s history at the time of its release.

In addition to animation, Miyazaki also draws manga. His major work was the Nausicaä manga, an epic tale he worked on intermittently from 1982 to 1984 while he was busy making animated films. Another manga, Hikoutei Jidai, was later evolved into his 1992 film Porco Rosso (1992).

Miyazaki’s latest film is Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Even though he has said this would be at last film, a statement he has said before after the completion of some of his earlier films, one hopes that additions to his extraordinary body of work will continue to be produced as long as he remains alive. –IMDb

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Maegatron

8Feb12

Loved this! Although there was a bit less philosophical/ecological underpinnings than with most his other films, which is a characteristic I very much appreciate in Miyazaki's films. Heartwarming. No one does children's film better.

MGeo

30Jan12

This is, quite simply, the best children's film ever made. Everything a kid could want in this movie is encapsulated so well in a feature films' average running time. It is bubbling with imagination and overflowing with innocence & heart. Even if you're an adult, you can't help but be swayed by its charms. Watch it while you are still young & impressionable, because that is when its magic will affect you the most.