Magic is a strange word to use to describe things. It can mean illusion, misdirection, deception and beauty, but it’s mainly used to describe something that amazes us and fills us with simplistic wonder.
Magic is how I would describe this film. It makes me remember when I was a carefree kid, amazed and curious at the new wonders everyday brought. But now I’m older, have been there and done that more times then I’d care to remember and I just don’t see the world in that light anymore. However this is what My Neighbour Totoro effortlessly transcends.
I’ve seen this film a few times before, the last being at a music festival with my nephews. But this is a family film so as such I am watching it with my friend and her 4-year-old daughter. The reason for this is that I wish to get an opinion from the audience this film is aimed at. For example: I hate reading reviews of comedies that are written by someone who hates them and has lost the ability to just be entertained by what’s on screen. I’m fortunate enough to have an eclectic taste in film, but it’s always cool to share something I like with others. Like the catbus.
The first thing I noticed about this Blu-ray transfer is how crisp it looks. I’ve never seen this film look so good! Like all studio Ghibli films, the animation is wonderful and full of care, but the colours really stand out and I noticed a lot more background detail. In fact it’s so crisp that I could sometimes see the shadows on the animation cells.
The story follows sisters Satuski and Mei’s move to the Japanese countryside with their father so they can be closer to their mother, who’s in hospital with an unnamed illness. In the house and surrounding woods the girls discover friendly soot sprites and magical creatures. This film is less about adventure and more about a magical situation, the interaction between the creatures and the purity and innocence of youth. There is no ultimate goal of this film, such as saving the world; we just see what happens over a short period of time and it’s a joy to watch.
My Neighbour Totoro takes us to a place few can imagine: the Japanese countryside of the 1950’s, which is hard to place as it feels old yet new. Like most Ghibli films, the movie has positive ecological themes regarding the natural world and how important it is to maintain it. However, it’s mainly about the bond between the sisters and that there is more to the world than often meets the eye. It captures being a kid so perfectly, from exploring new places, bickering, sharing, shouting at ghosts and the curiosity and innocent acceptance of what most adults would be afraid of.
But for me as an adult it raises a few questions: Why is the mother sick and what with? With all his power, would Totoro make her well again if the kids asked? Does the dad just play along and lie to comfort his daughters, or does he believe that the forest spirits exist and that you can only see them when they want to be seen?
Like Pan’s Labyrinth (which I bet was influenced by this) it wonders whether the creatures are real or just manifestations the girls create in order to cope with the new changes in their lives. There are little clues throughout, such as Totoro shaped clouds, and when Satsuki asks if Totoro looks like a troll from Mei’s book. Is their bond so strong that they believe the same fantasy and are fully engrossed in it? My friend’s daughter was wondering what happened to the huge tree that grew in the night but was gone by morning. Sadly I didn’t have an answer. But when the corn with Mei’s initials turns up at the end, it proves that it’s all real.
So, what does a 4 year old think of the film? After 40 minutes she said to me quite cutely, “I really do like this film, and was transfixed throughout and wanted to watch it again immediately after (as I write this, she has now seen it over 10 times). Her favourite bits are when Totoro turns up, and she even recognised him from Toy Story 3 (2010). She gives the film 5 out of 5.
However my favourite bit still has to be the scene where Satsuki first sees Totoro at the bus stop in the rain, hands him her dad’s umbrella and his fur stands up in excitement as the raindrops fall on it. It’s just so simple yet effective. And then my favourite mode of transport, the catbus, arrives!
Some of the dialogue is cheesy and the sync is off, but I’ll allow it as it’s translated from Japanese and it’s a kid’s film (you can watch it in the original Japanese if you wish). The film is timeless and its theme of innocence will means that it’s watched for many years to come. We get closure from the end credits and as much as I would like to see Totoro return, I feel he is not needed. The soundtrack is generally playful and you will get the Totoro song stuck in your head for days!
The disc includes a wealth of special features, which cover a lot of ground. Unfortunately I would have liked to have seen a bit about the film’s legacy and Totoro’s appearances in other films, but I guess they couldn’t have done that due to copyrights. We start out with some picture in picture storyboards, which are interesting but a little distracting from the viewing experience.
Creating My Neighbour Totoro is a short but sweet subtitled interview with director Hayao Miyazaki. He stared writing it originally as a picture book (for which we see sketches) and wanted a story without a hero or a girl without superpowers, with the ordinary Japanese scenery as a backdrop’. It took 15 years from conception to filming as most studios weren’t interested in a story that lacked action or adventure. During the process he rediscovered the beauty of the Japanese landscape, which until then he didn’t care about and wanted the movie to reflect himself as a kid.
Creating The Characters offers more interviews full of information about the film. Interestingly Totoro was originally going to appear in the opening scene until the producer stated it was better to tease the audience, and used ET (1982) as an example. Hayao also wanted just a small and big Totoro, but just decided to also have one in between. When creating the catbus he thought of the shape-shifting cat from Japanese folklore, and had a cat turns into a bus and that was that.
This extra also sheds some light on the girl’s mother, as Hayao states that back in the 50s there were many kids who had one with parent in hospital with tuberculosis, including his own mother. He also states that with this film he just wanted to portray purity and the nobility of innocence, proving that a movie like this could be successful. Well, he was eventually right
The Totoro Experience is a brief look at the film’s initial reception. It turns out that the opening weekend was a flop, but then it aired on TV a year later and the ratings went through the roof!
The Producers Perspective: Creating Ghibli is all about the origins of the famed studio, but I thought it was way too brief. That said, we do find out that Ghibli’ is the nickname for an Italian spy plane and originally a word used for a hot wind in the Sahara. They were planning to blow a new wind in the animation world so they decided on that, although the pronunciation was wrong.
The Locations Of Totoro is an excerpt from the scenery in Ghibli’, a Japanese documentary that profiles the real world locations Hayao Miyazaki used for the inspiration for his amazing worlds. We are shown the beautiful Sayama hills, which are located one hour from Tokyo, and we are shown round familiar locations from the film. We see fields, a stream, the woods, acorns littering the ground and there’s even a hospital in the woods. Interestingly there are Totoro forests paid for and protected by the UK’s National Trust. From there on they talk about the conservation of the area, weeding, fermenting leaves for compost and the work of the volunteers. This is an interesting documentary but strays from its subject matter. At 30 minutes long, I recommend this only to diehard fans.
Scoring Miyazaki is an extra I enjoyed but I think it will be recycled on upcoming releases. All music in Miyazaki’s films is composed by Joe Hisaishi, so it’s kind of like John Williams’ relationship to Spielberg. He talks about how important it is to create music for the image and uses the bus stop scene as an example. He also talks about Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) being influenced by Prague, and as such it was easy for him to score as he had lots of photos. With Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986 and my favourite Ghibli film so far) he states that his intention was to write a theme that would suit a children’s action adventure, and after working past midnight the theme just hit him and he wrote it down. Lastly with Ponyo (2008), he wrote the theme discreetly in the initial meeting.
Behind The Microphone is another brief documentary on the American Disney dub’. The Fanning sisters do a surprisingly good job considering how young they were when they gave English voices to the sisters. But then again they are real life siblings playing sisters. The other voice actors talk about the art of portraying emotion and heart through their voice, although it still comes across as them doing just a few hours’ work for the film.
Overall Verdict: Ultimately this is a fantasy film which perfectly captures the joy and innocence of being a child and is great to watch whatever your age. This is a fantastic Blu-ray package.
Special Features:
Storyboards
Creating My Neighbor Totoro (new)
Creating the Characters (new)
The Totoro Experience (new)
Producer’s Perspective: Creating Ghibli (new)
The Locations of Totoro (new)
Scoring Miyazaki (new)
Behind the Microphone
Textless Opening & Closing
Original Japanese Theatrical Trailers
Studio Ghibli Collection Trailers
Reviewer: George Elcombe