A highly charming, imaginative and heartwarming animated film.

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2010)

"My Neighbor Totoro"
Animated, 1988, Japan
Running time: 88 minutes
Written and directed by: Hiyao Miyazaki
* * * 1/2 Very Good
I happened to see this film March 13, 2010, for the very first time and have many positive adjectives of praise for this film fresh in mind. My first impressions are: "My Neighbor Totoro" is an exceptionally imaginative, detailed, charming, heartwarming and very cute film. Japan has mastered cute probably better than anyone else in the world. Cute is relatively easy to achieve, especially in an animated film, as the legacy of Disney shows. So, cute, really is a weak adjective of praise here.
"My Neighbor Totoro", 1988, is the first feature length animated film from the acclaimed animation director Hayao Miyazaki of Japan. Prior to this film, he worked in television, but found that artistically unsatisfying over time. Miyazaki has said, at first, he did not consider animation, as the medium of choice, for his imaginative stories and career change. For anyone with a large and vivid imagination, animation is the ideal choice of expression. If one can imagine it, one can bring it to life in animation, without difficulty or great expense, as compared to live action film.
What most impressed me about this film is Miyazaki's keen knowledge and expression of how it feels to be a child, how we perceive and react to the world around us, with energy, excitement, enthusiasm, imagination and curiosity. To me, this is what came across, most profoundly. Animation and sound are good overall in the film, nothing especially impressive. This is to be expected, as a first time feature length film director rarely is granted a large budget for their very first film. What's impressive about "My Neighbor Totoro", is the storytelling. That's what matters most, of course. Film is simply a highly visual medium of storytelling.
Miyazaki based the story of the film on his own childhood, growing up in rural Japan during the 1950's. All of the locations in the animated film, have their real life counterparts in Japan. The story concerns two young girls and their father, who move into a new countryside home, while their mother is away, sick in a hospital. Totoro can best be described as a large, gentle, friendly, furry, teddy bear-cat kind of creature, who is actually a spirit of the forest, near the new home of the two girls. Miyazaki is wise to hold off and wait until the halfway point of the story, to introduce the main character of Totoro, to build up the anticipation of Totoro's arrival in the film. The cat bus is an especially charming and imaginative character that appears later in the film. Miyazki's story telling style keeps some suspense going, regarding the mother's relation to the story.
Miyzaki's film takes it's time to slowly introduce it's characters and become acquainted with them. Clearly, Miyazaki is a gifted storyteller, with heart and details in his characters and stories. What people appreciate most about his animated films is that they are about ordinary, common people in extraordinary situations and told with heart, charm, genuine emotion and special little details, regarding the characters, landscapes and inventions.
When first released theatrically in Japan, "My Neighbor Totoro" was only modestly successful. When it was later released on television in Japan, it took off in popularity.
I have seen a number of Miyazaki films since his "Princess Mononoke", 1997, before seeing "My Neighbor Totoro", his very first film. "My Neighbor Totoro" by itself, is enough to have made me a Miyazaki fan, if I had seen it years ago, before I ever saw any of his other animated films.
Miyazaki's animated films are the type that always present something new both in characters and inventions, in an engaging and captivating way. With most of his animated films, it always worth experiencing them again and they continue to delight and entertain, both children and adults alike.
I consider myself a child at heart. I remember how it felt to be a child. How the world seemed so different at that time in life.. Children perceive and react to the world much differently than adults. Viewing a film such as "My Neighbor Totoro", Miyazaki recaptures childhood very accurately. Doesn't really matter he is Japanese. Children are children, with the same traits, all over the world, regardless of country or culture.
To me, Miyazaki deserves comparison to the great animation pioneer, Walt Disney. I realize this is a big compliment, however I feel that Miyazaki has earned and deserves comparison to Disney. Like Disney, Miyazaki is also highly imaginative, artistic and detailed with his animation stories, as was Walt Disney. I consider Miyazaki, the new Disney. Miyazaki is an excellent story teller and deserves his exalted and admired status within the animation industry, here in the United States.