Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Noriko Hidaka, Shigesato Itoi, Chika Sakamoto, Sumi Shimamoto
Running Time: 86 minutes
Certificate: U
Extras: Storyboards, Creating My Neighbour Totoro Featurette, Creating the Characters Featurette, The Totoro Experience, Producer’s Perspective: Creating Ghibli, The Locations of Totoro, Scoring Miyazaki, Behind the Microphone Featurette, Textless Opening & Closing Credits, Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer, Studio Ghibli Trailer Reel
In 2002 Studio Ghibli showed that a world dominated by Pixar could still appreciate traditional animation. SPIRITED AWAY made history as the first, and so far only, film made outside the English speaking world to win a Golden Bear and Academy Award. Twenty-four years before Hayao Miyazaki released MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO and defined everything great about Studio Ghibli .
Tatsuo Kusukabe, with his daughters Mei and Satsuki, moves into an apparently haunted house in 1958 Japan wanting to be closer to hospital bound matriarch Yasuko. Youngest daughter Mei’s inquisitive nature leads her to discover the Totoro family – dwarf, medium, and large – living, and protecting, the forest by their home. Bit by bit the Totoro will enrich the Kusukabe’s lives like no other.
The only way to watch MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is in Japanese; the subtitles on this disc aren’t the greatest – yellow font, which is lost in the background occasionally – but the American voice work nullifies emotion, and doesn’t feel natural enough not to distract from the beautiful landscapes on show. Miyazaki shows us Japan’s beauty, seen through the children’s eyes, whilst taking us on an emotion-packed, very odd journey.
At its heart, MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is about two children in fear of losing their mother. The Totoro is a metaphor for the warmth and protection Mei requires, and the connection between Satsuki and Yasuko – following encounters Satsuki writes to her hospital bound Mum, describing her joy at their discovery.
Miyazaki’s work before and since TOTORO is characterised by simple stories, told in elaborate settings. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is his most traditional work: the 1950s setting gives reason for the children to play outside, and not be locked up with a Mega-Drive, whilst mother’s illness makes the father’s willingness to accept the Totoro as real more believable – he wants his children to be distracted before her return.
In an age of digital animation MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO shows you don’t need 3D glasses, motion capture, or a celeb-packed cast to connect with your audience. You need heart and warmth which TOTORO has in spades.
Extras: A huge number of short, but informative featurettes pad out the release. Miyazaki describes his work with the passion you’d expect of a man with 50 years of work behind him, but there is nothing essential.
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is available on Blu-Ray now
