となりのトトロ: A wonderful gem about/for the family

Rating: Null/10 (1 June 2008)

As for many others, I guess, Spirited Away was my introduction to the work of Hayao Miyazaki and as many others, I loved that picture when I saw it on theaters back in the year 2003. Now thanks to my cousin I have seen My Neighbor Totoro on DVD and I can say that is just another gem of Miyazaki.
Is a simple but wonderful story about family and the rural Japan is the place for this story. You will be always kind of worry about the two main characters of the story: Satsuki and Mei, two sisters of 10 and 5 years old respectively. Their mother must be at the hospital so they must stay only with their father Tatsuo who works at the University. All of this makes that the girls stay a lot of time alone in a place where getting lost seems very easy but they take care of each other as good sisters. Of course Miyazaki immense imagination is here, of course to help this little girls and when Totoro appears is just fun. I really love this amazing character; sort of a big rabbit that seems always to be very lazy but the magic is here and with the Catbus (another product of Miyazaki's trip) they become soon the adoration and the helpers of the sisters. Is a family movie so is always present the feel of being worried about a family member (the absence of the mother of course but there are many scenes where you can find that feel, for example when it's raining in the bus stop in what probably is my favourite scene) but also that feel of being helped by the people near to you (in this case the people of the village were very kind and really helpful), never loosing the hopes.
Conclusion: If you ask me about the animation, I have few words to say: is a piece of work. And if you ask me about the dubbing, well I watched the version of Spain and it's pretty good but I do have desires to watch the film with the original language. Anyway, My Neighbor Totoro is a wonderful gem for the whole family (I actually saw this with two of my cousins and with my grandma and the four of us loved the film) and personally after watching my second Miyazaki film I do have a lot of desires to check his entire work. Keep on smoking Hayao!