My Neighbour Totoro is Hayao Miyazaki‘s fourth feature film.

Plot:
Satsuki and Mei move to the countryside with their father after their mother falls sick. Their new house is very close to the forest. One day while playing there, Mei finds Totoro, a huge forest spirit. Together they live through several adventures.

My Neighbour Totoro is such a special movie. I don’t know how else to say it. And this rewatch really pushed it forward on my own personal Miyazaki best of list. It might not be as impressive, visually, as his others movies but it perfectly captures what it is to be a child.

The way the story is told and the way we get to see the world, that’s exactly how I remember things going when I was four, five years old. I think that’s what makes this movie so precious and special to me.

What I mean is for example the way there is not really an overarching plot but more a sequence of little episodes. And the way Mei plays. And how tall and adult everybody seems to be compared to her, even Satsuki, who’s like eight or nine years old. And how Totoro being there is just a fact of life for her. No squabbles of how that wasn’t possible.

Wonderful.

I also think that it’s one of the most convincing portrayals of how adult problems effect childrens’ lives. Even if you don’t involve them and don’t tell them everything that’s going on, they are still going to pick things up. And they will try to deal with those things their own way. [And you have to take those ways seriously.]

And can you say best family ever? I mean, hell yeah, they have problems but they treat each other so lovingly and seem genuinely happy with each other, even if not with the world.

Anyway, as I said before, visually it might not be as impressive as Miyazaki’s other movies but in the end that’s exactly as it should be – the story is told from Mei’s point of view and the pictures and images Miyazaki uses stays true to that: Maybe everything is a little simple and landscapes are there to see and forget, but that’s just the way it has to seem to Mei.

Summarising: A must see, for adults and for children.

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Unfortunately, in the movie theatre, my luck ran out. There was a guy who sat right in front of me for both Laputa and Totoro. This guy was obviously an über-fan of these movies and he had brought along a few friends to initiate them into the world of Miyazaki. Which, of course, is perfectly alright. Unfortunately that meant that he felt he had to comment everything. It wasn’t so bad during Laputa, but during Totoro, he actually started to hum and sing along the (admittedly awesome) Totoro song.

gnnnaaaaaaaaaaah