Review: My Neighbor Totoro

Satsuki meets Totoro in the rain at the bus stop

I FINALLY saw My Neighbor Totoro -- it's a favourite animation movie from people's childhoods, but I watched it now, many decades older...

Because it's spring break here, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) decided to hold a Studio Ghibli Forever! festival showing some of Hayao Miyazaki's best animation over the decades.

Most of the audience members were families -- kids with either their parents or grandparents -- the vast majority not Asian. Only a handful of childless adults were in the theatre. And yes many bought popcorn! And there was a Totoro cookie for sale too for CAD$5.

The girls and their father live in the countryside

My Neighbor Totoro, released in 1988, is a heart-warming story about two girls who move with their university professor father to the countryside, where their mother is in the hospital. It's not clear what her illness is, but she seems to have been unwell for a long time.

The house they are living in seems haunted, but the children aren't scared -- which in turn makes the dust-like spirits scared and they go away into the nearby giant camphor tree.

It's there the younger sister Mei discovers two small spirits who lead her to the camphor tree where she meets Totoro and despite his huge size, she is hardly scared of him.

But when her older sister Satsuki finds Mei sleeping and wakes her up, Mei can't find Totoro again -- it turns out it's up to the spirits to decide if they want to be seen.

Eventually Satsuki meets Totoro on a rainy night waiting for her father at the bus stop with Mei sleeping on her back. He only has a leaf on his head for protection so she gives him her father's umbrella. He is so happy that he gives her a small bundle which turns out to be a bunch of acorns. 

The cat bus flies the girls up in the sky

Out of nowhere comes a giant cat -- a cat bus -- that takes Totoro away.

But then there is news that their mother is not well and both girls are upset. Mei runs to the hospital -- which is three hours by foot -- and Satsuki is desperate to find her...

The film is fantastic for the imaginative characters, how humans respect and interact with supernatural beings, and more importantly captures the behaviour of children so well.

The two girls are about 10 and four years old, Mei constantly copying her older sister which is true of most younger siblings. There's also a boy about Satsuki's age who is shy and doesn't know now to act around girls which is also funny but also very realistic.

I watched the matinee showing which was dubbed in English and I was concerned about the translation, but actually the voices were acted very well which was a relief. 

No wonder Totoro is so endearing so so many people and now I know what the cat bus is about!

And why in 2014 during the Umbrella Movement there was a large cardboard cutout of Totoro holding a yellow umbrella...

My Neighbor Totoro

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki

89 minutes