My Neighbor Totoro -- I loved it!

Cafe Society
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In my continuing quest to see more anime, I rented My Neighbor Totoro and watched it last night.

What a wonderful movie!!

There’s a quality I think of as “goodness” that I find every now and then. You see it when you read something or look at characters and think "These are just people, but they’re what people should be like. The last book I remember seeing it in was Plainsong by Kent Haruf. Just ordinary people, trying to do their best in this world.

I thought this movie had that quality. There were two little girls, doing little girl stuff (lots of squealing and running around.) There was the old house (with soot sprites), the busy dad, and the sick mom that everyone was a little worried about. And the totoro that lived in the wood nearby.

It really, really worked for me.

Anybody else here want their own personal totoro?

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This is one of my most favorite movies. I just rented it a few weeks ago on tape, and was thoroughly impressed with the entire movie. I wanted to buy the DVD, but the only version available right now is exactly what the tape was, so I won’t bother.

I just ordered my very own soot sprite! :smiley: I think I might spoil myself and buy a Totoro for my room too.

If you want to look, you can find them here.

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Ohymgod I was SO going to start a thread on this today.

I really love this movie too.

Did Miyazaki invent the totoro? The characters in the movie act as if they’re common knowledge; common mythology; but I can’t find any other reference.

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A lot of Miyazaki films have that feel to them, actually. You should check out Kiki’s Delivery Service if you liked Totoro. It’s another fun movie without much in the way of heavy plot.

I wouldn’t bother with the Totoro DVD – the only version available is the rushed Fox release, which isn’t worth it, in my opinion. Wait until Disney gets around to rereleasing it (I believe they have the rights now).

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Lilly, Queen of the Universe, watched this about a million times last week. After about the 950,000th time, I gave up trying to sit through it with her. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I kept hoping Racer X would show up.

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After I saw Princess Mononoke I was looking out for other Miyazaki movies to watch. However I was skeptical that I would like such an obviously kiddie film like Totoro.

I was wrong.:smiley:

Totoro is the ultimate feel-good movie. Everyone is nice. Almost nothing bad happens. Yet somehow it never seems sentimental or false. That is an indication Miyazaki’s genius, his skill in capturing the mannerisms of children, the beautiful artwork , and his use of silence and slow stretches (like in the bus-stop sequence).

Totoro may be the best film ever made for very small chlidren. The dialogue and story are really incidental. Still there is a lot of emotional depth to the film. It has something to say about community, family and Nature without ever being preachy.

Incidentally Totoro was included by Roger Ebert in his Great Movies list. Here is his review:
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/myneighbortotoro.html

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You have no idea how much I love this movie. Yeah I own the DVD and it is the rushed FOX version but it’s still wonderful. It’s one of those movies that makes me sing and dance, in public no less. I end up whistling the theme song for days later. Soot sprites kick ass! For more crazy soot sprite action check out Spirited Away. Also excellent. And if you want an emotional rollercoaster, watch Grave of the Fireflies, followed by Totoro. Not for the faint of heart.

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OK. Can I just say this kind of thing really bugs me? To avoid further hijack, I’ll do the rest of this in the Pit.

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Sorry; did this in the wrong order. Here’s the Pit thread.

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An explanation of totoros can be found here.

Information about Miyazaki’s other movies can be found here.

My wife and daughter (2-yrs old) love this movie. I thought the movie was OK, but it’s funny watching the expressions on my daughter’s face as she watches the movie - pure bliss. And she screams when the kids in the movie do.

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Thanks for the links, bytheway; great info.

I’ve watched this movie five or six times; all but one with a six-year-old friend of mine who’s just enTHRALLed by it anew every time she watches it. It’s spilled over into the rest of her life: she looks for totoros when she’s camping in the forest; she’s gleaned from the story–which never says this explicitly–that she’s more likely to meet a totoro if she’s nice to her little brother. That just tickles me to death.

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Catbus is cool! I used to have a poster of him in my office.

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And Qadgop the Mercotan, by this simple statement, confirms my belief that he is a cool person. :smiley:

I’d love to have a Catbus poster!

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Heh. I knew Qadgop was cool by his very name. And his Lens.

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Hey, slortar, get out of my head! That’s exactly what I was thinking when I opened the thread.

My kids love this movie almost as much as I do. Totoros rock.

Any Samurai Jack fans here? I caught the tail end of an episode a few weeks ago where I swear his travel companion was a totoro. Just stylized enough to keep from copyright infringement. And when Jack was getting his butt handed to him by some robots the totoro unleashed a can of whoopass on his assailants.

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damn, my post disappeared!

I too love this film. Such emotion and such joy! It’s beautiful! Oh, and I dispute the ‘nothing bad happens’

When the movie begins, the girls’ mother has been very sick and she’s recuperating in hospital, hence the reason for being in the country (near the hospital). And Mei gets VERY lost when she goes off to take the corn to her mummy- the bit with the boy from the next farm searching for Mei, and then the people dredging the rice paddies only to find a shoe always makes me really quite upset- embarrasing for a hairy man like me! sheepish grin).

Anyhoo… just before the birth of my li’l boy I bought him a Totoro rattle, to watch over him and protect him while he sleeps. It’s very, very cute, and I dearly hope he enjoys this movie as he gets older (he’s three months now and slowly beginning to appreciate the world around him- currently he only seems to enjoy Hamtaro, but I’m hoping that will change! grin).

For those in the know, the Japanese DVD (region 2) has a second disc featuring the complete storyboards of the film, with audio, so that you can rewatch the film as it was drawn by Miyazaki et al prior to animating. The first disc also has the english and japanese dialogue and very good english subtitles.

AND… if anyone is happening through Tokyo, there is a Ghibli museum in Mitaka, whcih I’ve yet to visit, but the photos are in various places online and it looks very cool! (-LIFESIZE CATBUS! well, kid-sized at least).

AND… Kiddyland, the enormous toystore in Harajuku has a fairly nice selection of Ghibli toys and stuff on (I think) the third floor (it’s been a while since i was there). Despite the fact that this sounds like an ad, Kiddyland has some wonderful stuff! My traditional japanese windchime (featuring a cast iron Totoro and an acorn clapper) comes from this shoppe, and if I’d had the YYY (that’s $$$ in japanese) I’d have bought my sweet wife a beautiful Totoro clock!

go there, tis wonderful! (just like ALL of Miyazaki’s films!)

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and yeah, I really like samurai jack, but I think it’s the design asthetic on that show that I enjoy more than the storytelling.

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Just be warned that the museum only admits a limited number of people, and requires tickets to be purchased in advance. Even weekday tickets sell out about a week in advance, and I think weekend tickets sell out the day they become available (the 10th of the previous month IIRC). Tickets are available at all Lawson convenience stores in Japan.

I recently saw the museum for the first time and it was a lot more fun than I expected from the descriptions. Unfortunately we had the 4pm ticket and it felt a little rushed to see it all in 2 hours. (If you have an earlier ticket you can stay for the rest of the day.) I could have spent an hour just reading the storyboards of all the movies.

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scr4 my envy is unspeakable!
Tell me, is the catbus room as cool as the photos make it? And how was the rooftop garden with the Laputa references?

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Leechboy loves this film so much that when Bubbaleechie was two weeks old he took her over to the uni library to watch My Neighbor Totoro. I don’t know if she took in all that much but he had the time of his life. As she stayed quiet through the whole movie I think it is a good sign.