Psycho's Movie Reviews #33: My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the story of a professor's two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in post-war rural Japan. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award and Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film in 1988. It also received the Special Award at the Blue Ribbon Awards in the same year.

In 1989, Streamline Pictures produced an exclusive dub for use on transpacific flights by Japan Airlines. Troma Films, under their 50th St. Films banner, distributed the dub of the film co-produced by Jerry Beck. This dub was released to United States theaters in 1993, on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States by Fox Video in 1994, and on DVD in 2002. The rights to this dub expired in 2004, so it was re-released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on March 7, 2006 with a new dub cast. This version was also released in Australia by Madman on March 15, 2006 and in the UK by Optimum Releasing on March 27, 2006. This DVD release is the first version of the film in the United States to include both Japanese and English language tracks.

Exploring themes such as animism, Shinto symbology, environmentalism and the joys of rural living, My Neighbor Totoro received worldwide critical acclaim and has amassed a worldwide cult following in the years after its release. The film and its titular character, Totoro, have become cultural icons. The film has grossed over $41 million at the worldwide box office as of September 2019, in addition to generating approximately $277 million from home video sales and $1.142 billion from licensed merchandise sales, adding up to approximately $1.46 billion in total lifetime revenue.

My Neighbor Totoro ranked 41st in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010 while Totoro was ranked 18th on Empire's 50 Best Animated Film Characters list. A list of the greatest animated films in Time Out ranked the film number 1. A similar list compiled by the editors of Time Out ranked the film number 3. My Neighbor Totoro was also the highest-ranking animated film on the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of all-time greatest films. The character made multiple cameo appearances in a number of Studio Ghibli films and video games and also serves as the mascot for the studio and is recognized as one of the most popular characters in Japanese animation. Totoro was ranked 24th on IGN's top 25 anime characters.

Plot:

In 1950s Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move into an old house to be closer to the hospital where the girls' mother, Yasuko, is recovering from a long-term illness. The house is inhabited by tiny creatures called susuwatari—small, dark, dust-like house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When the girls become comfortable in their new house, the soot spirits leave to find another empty house. One day, Mei discovers two small spirits who lead her into the hollow of a large camphor tree. She befriends a larger spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars that she interprets as "Totoro". She falls asleep atop Totoro, but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground. Despite many attempts, Mei is unable to show her family Totoro's tree. Tatsuo comforts her by telling her that Totoro will reveal himself when he wants to.

One rainy night, the girls are waiting for Tatsuo's bus, which is late. Mei falls asleep on Satsuki's back, and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. Totoro has only a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken for her father. Delighted, he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds in return. A giant, bus-shaped cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it and leaves. Shortly after, Tatsuo's bus arrives. A few days after planting the seeds, the girls awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted seeds and join in, causing the seeds to grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have sprouted.

The girls find out that a planned visit by Yasuko has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment. Mei does not take this well and argues with Satsuki, later leaving for the hospital to bring fresh corn to Yasuko. Her disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbours to search for her. Desperately, Satsuki returns to the camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to help, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the lost Mei sits and the sisters emotionally reunite. The bus then whisks them over the countryside to see Yasuko in the hospital. The girls overhear a conversation between their parents and discover that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold but is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where their parents discover it, and return home. Eventually, Yasuko returns home, and the sisters play with other children, while Totoro and his friends watch them from afar.

Themes:

Animism is a large theme in this film according to Eriko Ogihara-Schuck. Totoro has animistic traits and has kami status according to his surroundings and being referred to as "mori no nushi," or "master of the forest". Totoro lives in a camphor tree in a Shinto shrine surrounded by a Shinto rope, these are all characteristics of a kami. Moreover, Ogihara-Schuck writes that when Mei returns from her encounter with Totoro her father takes Mei and her sister to the shrine to greet and thank Totoro. This is a common practice in the Shinto tradition following an encounter with a kami.

Production:

Art director Kazuo Oga was drawn to the film when Hayao Miyazaki showed him an original image of Totoro standing in a satoyama. The director challenged Oga to raise his standards, and Oga's experience with My Neighbour Totoro jump-started the artist's career. Oga and Miyazaki debated the palette of the film, Oga seeking to paint black soil from Akita Prefecture and Miyazaki preferring the color of red soil from the Kantō region. The ultimate product was described by Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki: "It was nature painted with translucent colours."

Oga's conscientious approach to My Neighbour Totoro was a style that the International Herald Tribune recognized as " the traditional Japanese animist sense of a natural world that is fully, spiritually alive". The newspaper described the final product:

Oga's work on My Neighbour Totoro led to his continued involvement with Studio Ghibli. The studio assigned jobs to Oga that would play to his strengths, and Oga's style became a trademark style of Studio Ghibli.

In several of Miyazaki's initial conceptual watercolours, as well as on the theatrical release poster and on later home video releases, only one young girl is depicted, rather than two sisters. According to Miyazaki, "If she was a little girl who plays around in the yard, she wouldn't be meeting her father at a bus stop, so we had to come up with two girls instead. And that was difficult." The opening sequence of the film was not storyboarded, Miyazaki said. "The sequence was determined through permutations and combinations determined by the time sheets. Each element was made individually and combined in the time sheets...". The ending sequence depicts the mother's return home and the signs of her return to good health by playing with Satsuki and Mei outside. 

The storyboard depicts the town of Matsuko as the setting, with the year being 1955; Miyazaki stated that it was not exact and the team worked on a setting "in the recent past".  The film was originally set to be an hour long, but throughout the process it grew to respond to the social context including the reason for the move and the father's occupation. Eight animators worked on the film, which was completed in eight months.

Miyazaki has said that Totoro is "not a spirit: he's only an animal. I believe he lives on acorns. He's supposedly the forest keeper, but that's only a half-baked idea, a rough approximation." The character of Mei was modelled on Miyazaki's niece.

Release:

After writing and filming Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Castle in the Sky (1986), Hayao Miyazaki began directing My Neighbor Totoro for Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki's production paralleled his colleague Isao Takahata's production of Grave of the Fireflies. Miyazaki's film was financed by executive producer Yasuyoshi Tokuma, and both My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were released on the same bill in 1988. The dual billing was considered "one of the most moving and remarkable double bills ever offered to a cinema audience".

Box Office:

In Japan, My Neighbour Totoro initially sold 801,680 tickets and earned a distribution rental income of ¥588 million in 1988. According to image researcher Seiji Kano, by 2005 the film's total box office gross receipts in Japan amounted to ¥1.17 billion ($10.6 million). The film has received international releases since 2002. Overall, the film has grossed $30,476,708 overseas, for a total of $41,076,708 at the worldwide box office.

30 years after its original release in Japan, My Neighbour Totoro received a Chinese theatrical release in December 2018. The delay was due to long-standing political tensions between China and Japan, but many Chinese nevertheless became familiar with Miyazaki's films due to rampant video piracy. In its opening weekend, ending December 16, 2018, My Neighbour Totoro grossed $13 million, entering the box office charts at number two, behind only Hollywood film Aquaman at number one and ahead of Bollywood film Padman at number three. By its second weekend, My Neighbour Totoro grossed $20 million in China. As of February 2019, it grossed $25,798,550 in China.

My Review:

Miyazaki with yet another masterpiece. This movie is so much more than the story it’s the small things that really do it for me. I wouldn’t want to go into any details particularly because I’ve had the privilege of watching this while someone that’s reading this may have not so I’ll just say this it was a wonderful experience. Something about Miyazaki and the way he just gets you to forget about your life for a while and get you to go on this journey with his characters! That feeling is so so rare in today’s world, on a lot of the occasions it feels forced but not with Miyazaki. Hands down one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long long time. It’s quirky, weird but mesmerising and beautiful all at the same.

My Neighbour Totoro blends the wacky imagination of a child and realistic grounded story to make a surreal journey. The character development is unmatched as you really feel that the characters grow with the journey and have genuine realistic character flaws that only aid the characters growth. The animation is beautiful and really pops of with charm that engages the viewer with every frame. My only problem with the film is that the pacing in the first 20 minutes do feel quits slow but the pacing improves as the story goes on so its only a minor issue that doesn't have to much of an impact on the story. The cinematography was really nice as although most of the film just looks fine in some aspects, there are a few scenes that have an impact on the viewer that's hard to describe but they really mix well with beautiful art style. Overall My Neighbour Totoro is an unmatched story in regards to character development and the impact on the viewer that only has minor flaws that are barely noticeable; 9/10.