Very cute and colourful but the material is surprisingly childish and not as impacting as I had wanted it to be

Rating: Null/10 (3 September 2006)

With their mother ill in hospital, Satsuki and Mei's father moves them to a new country house. The two girls are excited to find that their house is "haunted" and has soot gremlins running wild. Bundles of energy themselves, Satsukie and Mei love the space and the large forest all around them. While her father works and the older Satsuki goes to school, young Mei finds herself in the care of her neighbour "Granny". However going wandering alone in the grass, Mei finds another neighbour walking by  a small little spirit creature that live in the woods, just one of three "Totoro's" that she befriends.
Having seen screenshots of this film and seeing how cool the Totoro's were I was looking forward to this film. I'd love to be a film snob and pretend that I have known Miyazaki for years, the truth is I have not and know him thanks to the success of Spirited Away. I mention this because I was hoping for the emotional depth in this film that I had with SA and this was another reason I was looking forward to the film. Sadly it was not to be all I had hoped it would have been and, although his films are generally "critic-proof", it was hard not to be a bit disappointed with it. Part of the reason was that it was a lot more childish than I expected it to be and it took a long time to really get going and, once it did, it was over. Although the Totoro's are the selling point, the film is really about the humans and how the girls deal with their reality. Perhaps it was the Disney version I saw, but I felt this was badly done and the emotions weren't well developed  rather they came out only in certain scenes and seemed artificial and were unengaging as a result.
Visually the film is professional and polished in the "human" scenes but Miyazaki's imagination and style comes out with the Totoro's (which are very cool) and the cat bus (which is weirdly cool). As characters they are both very much side issues though. This is a bit annoying because of how cool they are, but it is actually distracting because of how underdeveloped the main material is. For children I imagine it will be great fun as they will love the girls and the creatures and won't find the story too simplistic. Adults will also love the charm of the creatures but many will struggle with the story that seems to be focusing on the emotions of the family but somehow fails to do it that well. Adults might also find the girls tiring as they are unbelievably cute balls of energy; personally I thought they were fun but I think they would wear me out totally if they were mine! In the Disney version the Fanning sisters do a pretty good job with the voice work. I cannot be sure if the failure of the material is Disney's fault or not but the Fannings do what they can. They are polished and cute but they cannot get consistent emotion in their characters and, when they do, it seems artificially condensed as if the writer had suddenly remembered that his characters had these worries and fears in their little hearts. The Totoros are very cute and quite funny but they are not emotional characters and I was a bit frustrated by them not contributing more to the experience than just being cool.
Overall this is cute, cool and quite fun but those looking for it to even get close to the emotion and depth of Spirited Away will be disappointed. It seems to forget the heart of the story and is all too keen to just frolic with the Totoro before rushing the emotion in an unsatisfying conclusion. Fun, colourful and good for children but, aside from some moments of magic and cool creatures, many adults won't find the material to be strong enough to fully engage with.