In mid-20th-century Japan, young sisters Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe, along with their professor father, move into a new house in the country near the hospital where their mother is recovering from a long-term illness. The house has been uninhabited for years, and as Satsuki and Mei explore their new home and the surrounding forest and fields they discover that the area is inhabited by several woodland spirits. My Neighbor Totoro follows the two girls as they settle in to their rural home and befriend the spirits of the forest.
My Neighbor Totoro was one of Hayao Miyazaki's first productions for Studio Ghibli, the start of a long and successful career in creating gorgeous animated films that explore the mythology of Japan. Totoro is the epitome of this genre. Its subtle and quiet form of storytelling lets the tale and its characters unfold slowly in front of our eyes, at times delving very deep into its emotional center and at other times utterly light and carefree. The whimsical animation is a trip back to childhood, when the line between reality and imagination is arbitrary and unimportant, and the simplest things in the world are full of wonder and awe.
With that said, it does take a while to unfold, and will require patience on the part of adult viewers for about forty minutes of childlike antics before the real magic starts to happen. It is definitely a story with a slow fuse, if you are willing to accept this. My only real complaint is related to the English dub, which as far as these things go is almost entirely excellent. It rejects the general trend of early anime dubs to stamp out all references to Japanese culture, preserving everything (names, locations, orthography, superstitions) except a couple instances of Buddhist prayer and referring to what I could easily see was mochi as 'cake'. However the title and ending themes are abysmal - I cringed. Otherwise this is yet another wonderful work of art from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
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