Amazing

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2020)

My neighbour Totoro.

Where do I begin. This movie is a cinematic masterpiece with amazing writing beautiful animation and tremendous sound and lighting.
Firstly the characters we start off with 2 young girls and there father moving to the country side. The character satsuki is the eldest daughter and is a fun smart young girl that brings a lot of charm and she definitely shows how natural growing up should be. She acts her age and plays with her sister and gets involved with chores and does act like a 10 year old should. Mei is the youngest at the age of 5 or 6 and she is a fire ball of energy and whimsy and often seeks adventure and is the spirit of what a child should act like and how children play the director really captures the true innocence of children and how children used to behave before technology took over. The father Tatsuo is a loving caring father who tries his best to give his family a good life. You can really see the lice he has for his children he acts like a typical dad and this is why I love ghibli movies so much they take strange concepts and turns them into normal life and the company chooses very human like characters and they understand true human emotion in ghibli films.
The plot.
So we start off in a moving van with the father and the 2 children and then we get settled with the surroundings the children explore the new house and this scene is definitely one of my favourites because is captured true child like play and exploring. They come across these black soot like creatures and later we find out they are called spot sprites and they are forest spirits. Meanwhile the father and neighbor granny sort out the house. At night time the father and 2 daughters share a bath now some people may find this weird but it was very common to share a bath with parents at that time and then we see the door sprites fly off into the distance. The story is a very loose one especially when I haven't even brought up the giant monster. I won't spoil it all but the main feature in this movie is a giant chinchilla like forest spirit makes Totoro. Him and a bus that is also a cat are the main spectacul of this movie and one day while Mei is exploring she comes across Totoro in the forest and in a normal movie the girl would scream and run away but not this movie she climes upon Totoro and sleeps on him. We find out that there mother is in hospital sick and there's the whole sub plot of when is she getting out of the hospital. What I love about this movie is the sense of innocence it really makes me feel like a 10 year old and the charm and scenery is delightful. The over arching lesson is family and growing up and how to deal with change and dissatisfaction is brilliant. The climax of the film is heart reaching and powerful and is an extremely sad and painful thing to watch but that's why it is so good it brings up so many emotions and Totoro is really an amusing character that isn't the main part of the film he isn't in it ally but that's what makes his character so special. I truly believe this is my favourite ghibli movie and one of the best films I've ever watched. However there are a few flaws such as the ending. The ending is annoying to watch because you want to see more, questions go unanswered such as is the mother going to live. Is Totoro real or imaginary but I guess these questions are supposed to be unanswered and remain a mystery. I would rate My Neighbour Totoro a 4.4/5