Subtle and poetic

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2008)

Two little girls, Satsuki and Mei, moves into an old house in the Japanese country with their father. Their sick mother is at the hospital. The two kids meet the gentle and flute playing Totoro, a hybrid between a gigantic rodent and a bear. The movie's style is quite different from most Western animations, and only a few Disney movies can hold their own to Tonari no Totoro's amazing and poetic expression. The bus stop scene is brilliant, and so are many other similar scenes where only few words are spoken. Disney animations are often too restless to create an atmosphere like this. Pardoxically the two children are a bit stereotypical at times, but in the end of the movie they become more complex. At this point in the film a cryptic message from the mother's hospital, makes the children suspect that their mother has died. After an intense drama they are being flown to the hospital in Totoro's bizarre cat bus. But it turns out that the mother has only had a cold and that she's going to comeback to them soon. This is, though a foundation for a happy ending, a bit of an anticlimax. I couldn't help but wonder if the movie would be better if the mother was dead from the start of the film. Not that I'm a sadist, but as it is, the children are living a great life in a beautiful place, and when their mother comes back, all is practically well, this would make it seem so perfect, that you don't feel like you have to pity the kids, which makes their attempt in finding comfort in their friendship with Totoro less touching than it could be. If the mother was dead, the movie would probably touch some deeper feelings. But this is only a thought. However, a psychological interpretation could be that the mother really is dying, and Totoro only is a delusion made by the children in their grief. But this would however be too cruel. Perhaps the perfectly happy ending is the best way to end the film, though a sad future awaits the children when they get too old to see Totoro. Though I'm not a big fan of the manga style I must admit that it's masterfully animated, and the imaginative pictures make the movie seem like a beautiful dream.