Family-oriented Miyazaki tale and perhaps his most heartwarming story

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2010)

Hayao Miyazaki and his company Studio Ghibli are known widely as masters of sophisticated and creative hand-drawn anime, supreme imagination and heartfelt stories. "My Neighbor Totoro" is one of the first Miyazaki classics, ranking high in heart and animation but slightly lower on the fantasy end in comparison to his later work.
Like many of his films, "Totoro" is set in the country. A young girl and her little sister move to a new home in the countryside with their dad while their mom is sick in the hospital. They come to believe their new home is haunted when the younger sister, Mei, discovers a forest spirit named Totoro, a large round creature resembling a bear with pointy ears and whiskers with an affinity for napping inside large trees.
"Totoro" is certainly the most child-friendly of Miyazaki's classics. There is no force for evil with the plot revolving around simple family drama. Only our curiosity at the world of forest spirits that Miyazaki withholds from us for so long in this film drives us to watch the entire thing. Sadly, this world does not blossom with imagination anywhere near the way it does in Miyazaki's later films. Totoro himself represents a source of comfort. For all intents and purposes he is merely an imaginary friend, a way for the girls to escape from reality and forget about their ill mother. A huge plus on the emotional side of things for this film, but not much good when it comes to filling our fantasy quota.
The characters are some of the strongest people Miyazaki has ever created. The relationship between the two sisters holds the truth and humanity of the story. Even their father, who actually encourages their imagination instead of the expected "parent who tells them things aren't real" character archetype. The Disney English dubbing of the film does a terrific job in casting young Dakota Fanning and her sister Elle for the voice parts of Satsuki and Mei. Somehow in spite of their age they understand that these girls require a voice quality that it is much different from typical American children, for example. As siblings, this certainly made the connection between their characters even stronger.
"Totoro" has its classic scenes such as the one when Totoro shows up at the bus stop and Satsuki gives him her umbrella and when Mei chases some forest sprites into the woods, but the fantasy stops there. It simply is not integral to this story. "Totoro" is more of a country fairytale, something much different that the Disney cannon or the Wester cannon of children's stories and animation. It aims to tell a story of childhood and family with a slightly fantastical element to it rather than a wildly imaginative fantasy with family roots.
~Steven C
Check out my site http://moviemusereviews.com