A treat for all to cherish

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2010)

In 1988, after the delightful Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Hayao Miyazaki turned his attention to an even younger audience for this sugar-sweet fairy tale charting the adventures of the two young girls, Satsuki (Noriko Hidaka) and Mei (Chika Sakamoto), who move to the countryside with their university professor father (Shigesato Itoi) to be near the hospital where their mother (Sumi Shimamoto) recovers from a nameless illness.
It is narrower of scope than the aforementioned classics - deliberately so, because this is a essentially a small-scale drama about a family coping with a terminal illness. That sounds dreadfully morose for what is a work aimed at very young children, but it's all played out very cheerfully, as we gradually enter the kids' fantastical world. In this world they meet the sleepy troll called Totoro. Their passion gives him a reason to awaken, and he becomes the totem of strength and vitality the girls need to cope with the uncertainty surrounding their mother's condition.
We often speak of Pixar's and Dreamworks' canniness with the subtle grown-up substance of their animations. But Miyazaki goes beyond winks and trivial references. Perhaps it is the simplicity of his refreshingly formless narrative, but his symbolism has never been stronger than here. At one point, Mei becomes disillusioned by the fact that her acorns will not grow. Then, one night, she and Satsuki meet Totoro and perform a strange rain dance. The acorns don't just grow - an oak tree explodes from the earth, growing a hundred feet high in seconds. It's just one of many beautiful, hopeful scenes, all of which are delivered with a delirious smile.
There is more than one nod to Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland: Mei enter's Totoro's realm through a mazy, rabbit hole-style tunnel, while the hilarious 'Catbus' bears the perennial grin of the Cheshire Cat. But parents should not worry about any lurid drug references - this is a film that relishes the trappings of innocence better than any other I've seen.