My Favorite Miyazaki Film

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2009)

Maybe its nostalgia, because it was my first. Before I knew anything about anime or Miyazaki, I saw this on a rack at a supermarket in the early '90s and begged my mom to get it for me on VHS. And I'm so glad that she did, because this is one of the greatest films of all time. I liked it then, but I do remember thinking it was a bit slow and silly. But watching it now, its a wondrous tale of childhood and growing up. It's also the most different of Miyazaki's tales, I think, which gives it its own sort of value. Even though I feel this movie is perhaps spiritually closest to Spirited Away, a movie I never really liked all that much, it captures so well the awe of exploring as a child and the heartache of life's troubles seen through the lens of a child. This isn't so much a movie for children, but a movie about children for adults, a movie that allows them to travel back in time to when they were children. No movie so perfectly captures the magic of youth at My Neighbor Totoro.