A Beautifully Imaginative Masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2006)

In my mind, there are only two films that truly capture the essence of a child's imagination. One is Danny Boyle's vividly beautiful Millions, and the other is Hayao Miyazaki's sweet, tender, and utterly gorgeous My Neighbor Totoro.
The story is of two young girls who move to the Japanese countryside with their father while their mother is being treated in the hospital. After settling in, these two children discover that where they live is anything but ordinary. They find a hidden path into the forest, and soon meet Totoro, a giant, furry, and lovable creature.
The film is told strictly from the point of view of these two children. What adults may see as harmless and silly, the children see as amazing and very much real. When the children go on about how they can see "Soot Gremlins" and "Totoro", the adults simply say that they saw them when they were children as well.
This formula is certainly one we've seen before, but thanks to the genius of Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro takes on a feeling of unbridled imagination never before seen on celluloid. The world he creates is an intimate yet expansive one. The fact that this is one of Miyazaki's most beautifully animated features certainly doesn't hurt this. Everything is gloriously vivid, colorful, and bursting with life.
The manner in which Miyazaki presents the narrative is nothing short of brilliant. The whole time watching the film, we as an audience realize that the girls' mother is suffering from some kind of serious affliction, but this is never really addressed directly. The children don't think about it that way, so the film doesn't approach it that way. This subplot never really develops at all until a sequence near the very end of the film, and this is a very powerful sequence. In order to avoid spoilers, I won't reveal the details, but it certainly struck me with its bittersweet honesty. However, this is still a tender family film through and through, and the ending is one that is sure to bring a smile to your face. And unlike most family films, My Neighbor Totoro is sweet, but never reaches the point of being saccharine. It's an honest, beautiful masterpiece, and I give it my highest recommendation to anyone who can still manage to keep in touch with their inner child from time to time.