Irritatingly Sugary-Sweet

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2007)

There's no doubt that Hayao Miyazaki is a genius, but even Spielberg has made some clunkers in his time. My Neighbor Totoro is a beautiful animated tale with plenty of interesting character animation and breathtaking backgrounds. However, it takes exactly 30 minutes before the a "totoro" (the titular fictional creature) actually appears and then another 30 minutes before it does anything worthwhile. In between nothing happening, the characters are irritating sugary-sweet. The dialogue is so unoffensive that I was offended. Miyazaki-san is known for being a nature lover and usually animates cautionary tales about disrespect for nature. Sometimes this message is subtle; the rest of the time he wallops the audience over the head with it. This film is not even suitable for children as it slugs along with no pulse. On those rare occasions when a Totoro does appear, the creature's on screen interaction with the children is quirky and creative. When the creature is not on screen the humans trade sugary-sweet pleasantries back and forth ad nauseam. The girls are hyperactive but never once disciplined by their kind, but dull father. The sisters never once bicker and I must question why Miyazaki must have their panties showing whenever they run fast. The human characters once sat around and yapped about sharing fresh vegetables with one another. Why waste dialogue on how good a cucumber tastes? Where's the plot? There's no conflict or even a lesson to be learned. If you can stomach the overly-sweet dialogue and lack of a conflict for a full hour, you just may survive the last half-hour when something finally does happen. The last half-hour does not redeem the movie, instead its what should have been the movie all along!