Hey! I caught this episode too, and loved it! I could tell that blue creature was inspired by Miyazaki’s Totoro. That blue thing has got to be the cutest thing ever! I’m in love with it. 
"Oh, and I dispute the ‘nothing bad happens’ "
That’s why I said almost nothing bad happens.;).
. “And if you want an emotional rollercoaster, watch Grave of the Fireflies, followed by Totoro”
Remarkably enough Japanese movie audiences got to do just this because the two were first released in a double feature . It must have been some experience and maybe the greatest double feature in movie history.
A Catbus poster? I MUST HAVE ONE! Err, I mean my daughter would love one to hang in her room…
Our whole family loves this movie. It was fun to watch my daughter’s reaction the first time she watched it. She was completely transfixed.
The Laputa robot (full-size model/statue) is cool - a little smaller than I’d expected from the movie, but it was still neat to see that asymmetric face looking down at me. The catbus is of course too small for an adult to crawl into but it was fun to watch kids do so. My favorite exhitit was a 5-minute anime clip that shows historic fictional aircraft, similar to the credit sequence in Laputa but with more variety. They also had a big (life size?) model of Pazu’s flying machine from Laputa. (The one Pazu was building himself near the beginning of the movie.)
The museum is much more than the sum of the exhibits though - they managed to create a very warm and intimate atmosphere. The interior of the building itself is quasi-European, something you might find in Kiki. Some parts of the building’s exterior is modeled after Nausicaa’s world, other parts are more Kiki style. I wish I had the time to eat at the cafeteria - I hear it’s quite good, and only open to ticket holders. I guess I’ll have to go back again. (If anyone wants to join me let me know. I ive less than 5 miles from the museum.)
I am so jealous of scr4! One of these days, I’ll make it to Japan and go to the museum myself. I wish I had known about Miyazaki earlier. I think like a lot of people, I had not heard of him until I saw Spirited Away. What a wonderfully imaginitive man.
I am so jealous too. My daughter (yeah thats it daughter) wants that poster of catbus. She is 9 now but Totoro has been her favorite movie since she got it from my MIL when she was 5. I think we have to have watched it in the hundreds of times. There was a year or so that it my gift of choice when furlikid had to go to a birthday party. I am thinking Castle in the Sky or Catnaped
I love My Neighbor Totoro for its details. The little sister sleeps exactly right, and I love the house and the little boy who just has to tease the girl.