Probably the definitive Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece.

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2007)

My Neighbour Totoro is probably the film that introduced many western audiences to the work of esteemed Japanese animator/director Hayao Miyazaki and his celebrated production house Studio Ghibli. It is a film that I have fond memories of, having first discovered it as part of a mid-90's Sky Movies double (alongside my personal favourite Miyazaki film Porco Rosso) when I was around nine or ten years old. It stayed with me for many years before unavailability led me to record it off the TV sometime around 2001, where I found, much to my surprise, that the film was every bit as touching, endearing and enchanting as it had first seemed so many years before.
Finally, some kind soul has decided to re-release all of the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli productions as a collection of re-mastered DVD editions, including everything from his Lupin III instalment The Castle of Cagliostro to the more recent epic fantasy adventure, Howl's Moving Castle (2004), which, like almost everything that Miyazaki has been involved with before, offer us a series of intricate story lines, breathtaking visuals, memorable characters and a general approach to bold, imaginative, unique and utterly compelling family entertainment that will almost certainly appeal to anyone between the ages of eight and eighty (urgh, sorry for the cliché!!). My Neighbour Totoro remains, perhaps, the definitive Studio Ghibli production, with Miyazaki here perfecting the visual style that would subsequently become his trademark, as well as developing a number of thematic devices that would be further explored in later projects like Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso and Spirited Away.
The story takes place in the rural Japan of the 1950's, where two young girls and their father move into an old house near the forest in an attempt to distract the girls from the absence of their mother, who is recovering from tuberculosis in a nearby convalescence home. Whilst exploring the forest, the two girls discover a family of "forest spirits", the biggest of which they christened Totoro (a mispronunciation of "tororu", the Japanese word for troll), who allows the two girls to partake in their nightly adventures. With the film, Miyazaki and his team create a depiction of the perfect summer and the power of imagination, as they use the two children to act as a representation for the audience. Mei, the younger of the two sisters, comes to represent the youngsters within the audience, as she approaches the Totoro characters with wide eyes and enthusiasm and generally accepts each of their adventures to be a continuation of her imagined child-like sense of fabrication. Satsuki, the older of the two girls, straddles the line between childhood and pre-teen adolescence. Her character is often more cynical and level-headed than her younger sister, and therefore she is the perfect representation for an adult audience who may need to put aside their own sense of scepticism when approaching a film that is so shameless magical.
The story is fantastic, with Miyazaki allowing the action to unfold slowly... bringing the girls (and the audience) into the world of totoro slowly so that the introduction of the "soot spirits" and the mythical king of the forest doesn't seem too jarring when dropped into a film that evokes such a plausible and believable depiction of reality (as with all the films of Studio Ghibli, Totoro has an almost obsessive attention to detail, with the texture of the locations and the use of light and shadow drawing you further and further into the film as a whole). The atmosphere throughout is perfect, whilst the characters (both in design and portrayal) are excellent, with the two young girls setting the template for Miyazaki's aforementioned later films, Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away, whilst the design of the mythical Totoro would become an important piece of iconography within Japanese animation (he's used as the Studio Ghibli logo, and is available in a range of plush-toy incarnations!!).
As with the majority of Miyazaki's work, Totoro has deeper themes lurking beneath the surface of the story... Here, it is the idea of childhood and imagination (and really the power of imagination, which is central to all Miyazaki's work) being worn down by the approach of adolescence. It has also been seen as a metaphorical piece, with the relationship between the girls and Totoro being an imagined one in order to take their minds off the temporary loss of their mother and their concerns over her health (a factor that probably accelerates Satsuki's desire to grow up?). Whether or not you choose to interpret the story on such a level is entirely up to you, with the film working just fine as a lovely piece of family entertainment, with a warm and ultimately uplifting story being elevated by that gorgeous design/animation, the larger than life characters, and the story that manages to create fantastical characters and enchanting underworlds, without feeling the need to view them with a crass irony or an air of damaging cynicism (something that can't be said about the majority of Hollywood animation).
My Neighbour Totoro is an exceptional film... one that has the power to enthral children and adults alike (another woeful cliché... but it's true!!!) with its evocative story, memorable characters and shades of hidden depth. If you've never seen a Hayao Miyazaki film before, then this is a great place to start, and is really an essential purchase alongside Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle.