Riveting, visually sumptuous and marvellous animated movie by the great Hayao Miyazaki

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2019)

Fascinating and wonderful cartoon movie by the genius Hayao Miyazaki . This magnificent cartoon movie concerns Japanese legends , and forest spirits . Exciting and rather good film set in the fifities about a Japanese family moves to country , being formed by the University professor father and his children : Salsaki and her younger sister Lucy whose new house in the country is filled with magic , including strange creatures as some black dusty balls and especially by Tororo . It is a cuddly , friendly animal that can fly , if weird mix of bear , owl , cat and seal with a gentle rear and whiskers . Naturally , every time the two sisters get into mischief , the sympathetic Totoro is there to rescue then . Meanwhile their mummy recuperates from Tuberculosis in hospital and only gradually becomes aware that something's hanging in the trees outside .
This wonderful film is plenty of fantasy , adventures, spectacular images and with ecological message . The picture is narrated with sensibility and sense of wonder and being quite entertaining . This is the animated movie that first brought Miyazaki international attention , it remains as a cartoon movie achievement almost without parallel. The first half delicately captures both quietness and mystery as two little girls move with their daddy to remote new mansion in the countryside , inhabited by strange spirits . While younger spectators will adore the funny creatures : Tororo , Kodamas , the twelve-legged cat-bus that can be only seen by kiddies ; adults will perhaps best appreciate the movie's delicate rending of atmosphere and its attuned understanding of the wonders and anxieties of infancy . It contains a great sestimentality and sensibility , it will be utterly refreshing to those raised on a diet of Walt Disney . The protagonist animal , house-sized Totoro steals the show , it is a giant cat-alike that can fly and has a magic bus which only can be seen by children . This stunning and superbly imagined film will appeal both , children and adults .
The motion picture was splendidly realized by Hayao Miyazaki , he personally corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's thousands animation cels . Being accompanied by sensitive music score composed by his usual musician , Joe Hisaishi. It packs up a big resonance , weight and delicacy that make it all an awesome film . Never remotely didactic , the movie is ultimately a children fantasy that touches brief thoughtful issues dealing with sintoism religion , ethical , ecological and kiddies psychological themes . It has some self-biographic elements as Miyazaki's mother suffered TB for 9 years , and she standed in hospital . It followed a Short movie , titled ¨Mei and the cat-bus¨ it is only exhibited in Ghibli studios . My neighbour Tororo premiered in cinemas along with ¨The tomb of glowworms ¨ (1988) by Isao Takahata and failed at boxoffice . However , later on Tororo has turned to be a real classic movie . As Tororo is an icon or brand in Ghibli Studios , getting a great merchandising . No other Word : a masterpiece

Miyazaki wasn't yet a culture hero in Japan when made this animated mythic adventure ; later on , he directed ¨Princess Monokone¨converted the first of any kind to gross over the box office in Japan and around the world , it raised him to a status approaching living national treasure . Miyazaki also directed other excellent cartoon movies as ¨Lupin¨ (1978) , Castle of Cagliostro¨ (1979) , ¨Nausica of the valley of wind¨ , ¨Howl's moving castle¨ , ¨Laputa castle of the sky¨ ,¨Porco Rosso¨ , ¨Kiki's delivery service¨, ¨Chihiro¨ or ¨Spirited away¨: the highest grossing Japanese film ever , and this cult movie : ¨My neighbour Tororo¨ .