| 2nd | 1988">Top animated feature-length films: 1988 |
| 17th | Top fantasy anime |
| My Neighbor Totoro | |
|---|---|
 Japanese theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Produced by | Toru Hara |
| Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Starring | Chika Sakamoto Noriko Hidaka Hitoshi Takagi |
| Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
| Cinematography | Hisao Shirai |
| Editing by | Takeshi Seyama |
| Distributed by | Toho Troma Films Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | Japan: November 4, 1988 United States: 1993 |
| Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro), is a 1988 Japanese anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1988. The film was originally released in the U.S. on VHS and Laserdisc with the title, My Friend Totoro.[1]
Streamline Pictures produced an exclusive dub for Japan Airlines' transpacific flights in 1988. Troma Films, under their 50th St. Films banner, distributed the dub of the film co-produced by Jerry Beck. It was released on VHS and DVD by Fox Video. Troma's and Fox's rights to this version expired in 2004. The film was re-released by Disney on March 7, 2006.[2] It features a new dub cast. This DVD release is the first version of the film in the United States to include both Japanese and English language tracks, as Fox did not have the rights to the Japanese audio track for their version.
Contents |
In 1958, the Kusakabe family reunites when a university professor and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei (approximately ten and four years old, respectively) move into an old house in rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where their mother is recovering from an unnamed, long-term illness. The daughters find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari— small house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When the girls become comfortable in their new house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits (identified as "black soots" in early subtitles) leave the house to drift away on the wind.
While she is playing outside one day, the younger daughter, Mei, sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures, who lead her through a briar patch, and into the hollow of a large cinnamomum camphora tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "Totoro" (in the original Japanese dub, it stems from Mei's mispronunciation of the Japanese pronunciation of the word "troll").[3] Her father later tells her that this is the "keeper of the forest".
One rainy night the girls are waiting for their father's bus and grow worried when he does not arrive on the bus they expect him on. As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. He only has a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken along for her father. Totoro is delighted at both the shelter and the sounds made upon it by falling raindrops. In return he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds. A bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella. Shortly after, their father’s bus arrives.
The girls plant the seeds. A few days later they awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his two miniature colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted nuts and seeds. The girls join in, whereupon the seeds sprout and then grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted.
The girls find out that a planned visit by their mother has to be postponed because of a temporary setback in her treatment. Satsuki takes this very hard, having reached the age where she fully understands the concept of death, and she worries that she might lose her mother. Frustrated and frightened, she yells at Mei, then stomps away. Mei, believing that her mother can be cured by healthy food, sets off on foot to the hospital with an ear of corn.
Her disappearance prompts the neighbors to search for her, eventually leading a desperate Satsuki to returns to the camphor laurel tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the confused Mei sits. Having rescued her, the Catbus then whisks her and Satsuki over the countryside to see their mother in the hospital. The girls perch in a tree outside of the hospital to discover that she is doing well. They deliver the ear of corn, then return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus departs, it fades away from the girls' sight.
The closing credits show Mei and Satsuki's mother returning home and feature scenes of Satsuki and Mei playing with other children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.
Additional voices in the Japanese version are provided by Tarako, Ikue Ōtani and Hikako Ishida. Additional voices in the Walt Disney Company adaption are provided by Ashley Rose Orr, Katelin Petersen and Evan Sabara.
The art direction of My Neighbor Totoro was performed by Kazuo Oga. The art director was drawn to the film when Hayao Miyazaki showed him an original image of Totoro in a satoyama. The director challenged Oga to raise his standards, and Oga's experience with My Neighbor Totoro jump-started the anime artist's career. Oga and Miyazaki debated the palette of the film, Oga seeking to paint black soil from Akita Prefecture and Miyazaki preferring the color of red soil from the Kantō region. The ultimate product was described by Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, "It was nature painted with translucent colors."[4]
Oga described his approach to painting background art, "I appreciate my role and I draw with the feeling that if I don't make a good effort, I will be somehow punished." Oga's conscientious approach to My Neighbor Totoro was a style that the International Herald Tribune recognized as "[updating] the traditional Japanese animist sense of a natural world that is fully, spiritually alive". The newspaper described the final product, "Set in a period that is both modern and nostalgic, the film creates a fantastic, yet strangely believable universe of supernatural creatures coexisting with modernity. A great part of this sense comes from Oga's evocative backgrounds, which give each tree, hedge and twist in the road an indefinable feeling of warmth that seems ready to spring into sentient life." Oga's work on My Neighbor Totoro led to his continued involvement with Studio Ghibli. The studio assigned jobs to Oga that would play to his strengths, and Oga's style became a trademark style of Studio Ghibli.[5]
After writing and filming Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Castle in the Sky (1986), Hayao Miyazaki began directing My Neighbor Totoro for Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki's production paralleled his colleague Isao Takahata's production of Grave of the Fireflies. Miyazaki's film was financed by executive producer Yasuyoshi Tokuma, and both My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were released on the same bill in 1988. The dual billing was considered "one of the most moving and remarkable double bills ever offered to a cinema audience".[6]
In 1993, 20th Century Fox released the first English-language version of My Neighbor Totoro, produced by John Daly and Derek Gibson (the producers of The Terminator) with co-producer Jerry Beck. Fox and Troma's rights to the film expired in 2004. Disney's English-language version premiered on October 23, 2005; it then appeared at the 2005 Hollywood Film Festival. The Turner Classic Movies cable television network held the television premiere of Disney's new English dub on January 19, 2006, as part of the network's salute to Hayao Miyazaki. (TCM aired the dub as well as the original Japanese with English subtitles.) The Disney version was initially released on DVD on March 7, 2006, but is now out of print. A reissue of Totoro, Castle in the Sky, and Kiki's Delivery Service featuring updated cover art highlighting its Studio Ghibli origins is scheduled for March 2, 2010, coinciding with the US DVD and Blu-Ray debut of Ponyo.
As is the case with Disney's other English dubs of Miyazaki films, the Disney version of Totoro features a star-heavy cast, including Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei, Timothy Daly as Mr. Kusakabe, Pat Carroll as Granny, Lea Salonga as Mrs. Kusakabe, and Frank Welker as Totoro and Catbus. The songs for the new dub retained the same translation as the previous dub, but were sung by Sonya Isaacs.
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 87% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based upon a sample of 23, with an average score of 7.9/10.[7]
Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times identified My Neighbor Totoro as one of his "Great Movies", calling it "one of the lovingly hand-crafted works of Hayao Miyazaki". Ebert reviewed the film, "My Neighbor Totoro is based on experience, situation and exploration—not on conflict and threat," and described its appeal: "...it would never have won its worldwide audience just because of its warm heart. It is also rich with human comedy in the way it observes the two remarkably convincing, lifelike little girls... It is a little sad, a little scary, a little surprising and a little informative, just like life itself. It depends on a situation instead of a plot, and suggests that the wonder of life and the resources of imagination supply all the adventure you need."[8]
Leonard Klady of the entertainment trade newspaper Variety wrote that My Neighbor Totoro demonstrated "adequate television technical craft" that was characterized by "muted pastels, homogenized pictorial style and [a] vapid storyline". Klady described the film's environment, "Obviously aimed at an international audience, the film evinces a disorienting combination of cultures that produces a nowhere land more confused than fascinating."[9]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times described My Neighbor Totoro as "very visually handsome", and believed that the film was "very charming" when "dispensing enchantment". Despite the highlights, Holden wrote, "Too much of the film, however, is taken up with stiff, mechanical chitchat."[10]
Matthew Leyland of Sight & Sound reviewed the DVD released in 2006, "Miyazaki's family fable is remarkably light on tension, conflict and plot twists, yet it beguiles from beginning to end... what sticks with the viewer is the every-kid credibility of the girls' actions as they work, play and settle into their new surroundings." Leyland praised the DVD transfer of the film, but noted that the disc lacked a look at the film's production, instead being overabundant with storyboards.[11]
My Neighbor Totoro helped bring Japanese animation into the global spotlight, and its set writer-director Hayao Miyazaki on the road to success. The film's central character, Totoro, is as famous among Japanese children as Winnie-the-Pooh is among British ones.[12] The Independent recognized Totoro as one of the greatest cartoon characters, describing the creature, "At once innocent and awe-inspiring, King Totoro captures the innocence and magic of childhood more than any of Miyazaki's other magical creations."[13] The Financial Times recognized the character's appeal, "[Totoro] is more genuinely loved than Mickey Mouse could hope to be in his wildest—not nearly so beautifully illustrated—fantasies."[12]
The environmental journal Ambio described the influence of My Neighbor Totoro, "[It] has served as a powerful force to focus the positive feelings that the Japanese people have for satoyama and traditional village life." The film's central character Totoro was used as a mascot by the Japanese "Totoro Hometown Fund Campaign" to preserve areas of satoyama in the Saitama Prefecture.[14] The fund, started in 1990 after the film's release, held an auction in August 2008 at Pixar Animation Studios to sell over 210 original paintings, illustrations, and sculptures inspired by My Neighbor Totoro.[15]
A main-belt asteroid was named 10160 Totoro after the film's central character Totoro.[16]
Totoro has made cameo appearances in multiple Studio Ghibli films, including Pom Poko, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Whisper of the Heart. Additionally, various other anime series and films have featured cameos, including one episode of the Gainax TV series His and Her Circumstances; director Hideaki Anno worked as a key animator on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 and considers Miyazaki a mentor.[17][18] Totoro has also had cameo appearances in various non-Japanese works, including on Comedy Central's Drawn Together and in the Imaginationland episodes of South Park as a background character, in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Brief Lives in which Delirium blows bubbles into a number of impossible shapes, including a Totoro holding an umbrella. Miyazaki also uses Totoro as a part of his Studio Ghibli company logo. Volume 9 of the Gin Tama manga has a spoof of the film entitled "My Neighbor Pedro". Also, the episode of Samurai Jack entitled "Jack and the Creature" pays homage to this film. A Totoro toy can be seen in a trailer for Toy Story 3.
 Totoro seen in the Toy Story 3 Trailer. |
A four-volume series of ani-manga books, which use color images and lines directly from the film, were published in Japan in May 1988 by Tokuma.[19][20] The series was licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media, which released the books from November 10, 2004 through February 15, 2005.[21][22]
A 112 picture book based on the film and aimed at younger readers was released by Viz on November 8, 2005.[23] On the same day, Viz released a 176 page art book containing conceptual art from the film and interviews with the production staff.[24]
Mei and the Kittenbus (めいとこねこバス Mei to Konekobasu) is a thirteen minute sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, written and directed by Miyazaki.[25] Chika Sakamoto, who voiced Mei in Totoro, returned to voice Mei in this short. Hayao Miyazaki himself did the voice of the Neko Ba-chan as well as Totoro. It concentrates on the character of Mei Kusakabe from the original film and her adventures one night with the Kittenbus (offspring of the Catbus from the film) and other cat-oriented vehicles.
Originally released in Japan in 2003, the short is regularly shown at the Ghibli Museum,[26] but has not been released to home video. It was shown briefly in the United States in 2006 to honor the North American release of fellow Miyazaki film Spirited Away[27] and at a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fundraiser a few days later.[28]
The Tonari no Totoro Soundtrack was originally released in Japan on May 1, 1988 by Tokuma Shoten. The CD primarily features the musical score used in the film composed by Joe Hisaishi, except for five vocal pieces performed by Azumi Inoue.[29] It has since been re-released twice, once on November 21, 1996 and again on August 25, 2004.
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| My Neighbor Totoro となりのトトロ | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Produced by | Toru Hara |
| Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Starring | Chika Sakamoto Noriko Hidaka Hitoshi Takagi Tanie Kiribayashi Shigesato Itoi Sumi Shimamoto |
| Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
| Cinematography | Hisao Shirai |
| Editing by | Takeshi Seyama |
| Distributed by | Toho (Japan) Troma Films - 1993 dub (USA) Disney - Disney dub (USA) |
| Release date(s) | April 16 1988 Fox Dub 1993 Disney Dub March 7 2006 |
| Running time | 86 minutes |
| Language | Japanese |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro?), or My Neighbour Totoro on UK DVD box titles, is a 1988 animated movie written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. It won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1988. This movie was originally released in the United States in VHS format with the title, My Friend Totoro.[1]
Troma Films, under their 50th St. Films banner, produced a 1993 dub of the movie co-produced by Jerry Beck. It was released on VHS and DVD by Fox Video. Troma's and Fox's rights to this version expired in 2004. The movie was re-released by Disney on March 7, 2006.[2] It features a new dub cast. This DVD release is the first version of the movie in the United States to include both Japanese and English language tracks, as Fox did not have the rights to the Japanese audio track for their version.
Contents |
Two girls, Satsuki and her younger sister named Mei, move to a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Mei discovers one day a giant creature named Totoro who lives in the forest by their house. One day, when the girls are waiting for their dad by the bus stop, they both see Totoro and a cat-bus. Later, Mei decides to run away to try to find her mother at the hospital, and gets lost. Satsuki looks for Totoro, who gives her a ride on the cat-bus and helps her find Mei. As the movie ends, the girls are seen delivering an ear of corn to their mom to help her get well.
One of the most significant things to point out in My Neighbor Totoro is that the mother is absent from the home. According to Takie Sugiyama Lebra, “the [Japanese] mother is characterized as having suffered hardships” (154).[5] This is true in Totoro, as Mei and Satsuki’s mother is hospitalized with an unnamed illness. The mother’s absence is significant because “at home, the husband depends upon the wife for domestic care. The husband is helpless in housekeeping tasks, such as doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and child rearing” (52).[5] In the absence of her mother, it is then Satsuki’s job to take over household tasks with Nanny’s help. This is illustrated several times throughout the movie.
One such illustration is when Satsuki prepares breakfast and lunch for her father and Mei before she leaves for school. This is a task that would normally fall to the mother. Also, the various cleaning and garden tasks that Satsuki and Mei often had the help of Nanny to complete would have also normally been the main responsibility of the mother to complete.
Mei and Satsuki’s father demonstrates both typical and atypical characteristics of a traditional Japanese father. According to Peter Tasker, “Japanese children are accustomed to never seeing their father on the weekdays, and only for short periods at weekends. A husband’s proper field of endeavor is the company” (101). [6]This is only somewhat accurate in Mei and Satsuki’s relationship with their father. Although their father is often away working at the university or visiting their mother in the hospital, he is by no means an absentee father. He is seen working at a desk while Mei plays outside and spending time with his daughters before their bedtime. Many scholarly critiques of Japanese culture would lead one to believe that this is not the norm.
My Neighbor Totoro exhibits several important cultural points through the setting and passive details.
The house into which the Kusakabe family moves is an accurate portrayal of a typical, rural, Japanese home. The sliding doors that the father opens when they first move into the house are common architectural features. These doors are meant to be opened during the day, weather permitting, and closed at night. Another feature to point out about the house itself is the way the foundation is constructed. “Japanese houses do not have cellars but are built with a foundation of shallow concrete, or a single row of cement blocks. On top of this type of foundation is placed a row of heavy timbers” (33).[7] This can be seen clearly when Mei crawls under the house in pursuit of one of the smaller totoros.
As for Totoro, he lives in a tree demarcated by a shimenawa (braided straw rope for shinto). The tree is called shinboku (sacred tree). Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan and some consider many of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies—including Totoro—to have Shintoist themes,[8][9]. and interpret Totoro as a kami spirit of the Shinto religion[10][11]. But Miyazaki says "this movie [Totoro] has nothing to do with that [Shinto] or any other religion."[10]
The community in which Satsuki and her family have moved is a typical agricultural town. The rice paddies are visible throughout the movie. Rice cultivation is one of the most important industries in Japan, as rice is a staple of the Japanese diet. The home that Satsuki and Mei live in is more spacious than what would be available in a city. Also, the scene where Nanny, Mei, and Satsuki are washing vegetables shows the near self-sufficiency of these farming communities.
The bath scene is also demonstrative of archetypal Japanese life. “The bathtub is more like a small swimming pool than a tub” (38).[7] As seen in the movie, several people bathe together at once. It is considered rude to enter the tub without first washing, as shown by Satsuki before she enters the tub with her father and Mei. These bathtubs are heated usually by small, well-tended coal burners under the tub.
Another cultural manifestation is the scene that shows the family sleeping. Often, the living room is converted into a bedroom where the whole family sleeps together on mats called futon. This sleeping arrangement is space-efficient and accommodates for smaller housing in a country where living space is severely limited. Mei is sleeping between Satsuki and her father, which is the usual arrangement—with the youngest in the middle.
In one scene, Satsuki is shown preparing the family's lunch in traditional bento style. A bento is a compartmentalized lunch box usually with only one or two tiers. Food is arranged to be aesthetically pleasing. Bentos are extremely common as lunch boxes for children, adults, and even those who stay at home, as Mei does when Satsuki goes to school.
Other passive cultural references include:
My Neighbor Totoro was released by Studio Ghibli as a double feature with Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies in August 1988. There are two theories for this: one was that Totoro would not be successful. Another theory is that Grave of the Fireflies was believed to be too depressing for audiences by itself, and thus needed a lighter animation to accompany it. [12] The late Yoshifumi Kondo provided character designs for both movies.
In 1993, Fox released the first English-language version of My Neighbor Totoro, produced by John Daly and Derek Gibson (the producers of The Terminator) with co-producer Jerry Beck. Fox and Troma's rights to the movie expired in 2004. Disney's English language version premiered on October 23, 2005; it then appeared at the 2005 Hollywood Film Festival. The Turner Classic Movies cable television network held the television premiere of Disney's new English dub on January 19, 2006, as part of the network's salute to Hayao Miyazaki. (TCM aired the dub as well as the original Japanese with English subtitles.) The Disney version was released on DVD on March 7, 2006.
As is the case with Disney's other English dubs of Miyazaki movies, the Disney version of Totoro features a star-heavy cast, including Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei, Timothy Daly as Mr. Kusakabe, Pat Carroll as Granny, Lea Salonga as Mrs. Kusakabe, and Frank Welker as Totoro and Catbus. The songs for the new dub retained the same translation as the previous dub, but were sung by Sonya Isaacs.
The movie stars the following voice actors:
| Character | Original Japanese version | Streamline English version | Disney English version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satsuki Kusakabe | Noriko Hidaka | Lisa Michelson | Dakota Fanning |
| Mei Kusakabe | Chika Sakamoto | Cheryl Chase | Elle Fanning |
| Professor Kusakabe | Shigesato Itoi | Steve Kramer | Timothy Daly |
| Mrs. Kusakabe | Sumi Shimamoto | Alexandra Kenworthy | Lea Salonga |
| Kanta | Toshiyuki Amagasa | Kenneth Hartman | Paul Butcher |
| Nanny | Tanie Kitabayashi | Natalie Core | Pat Carroll |
| Totoro | Hitoshi Takagi | Rob Paulsen | Frank Welker |
| Catbus | Hitoshi Takagi | Frank Welker | Frank Welker |
The movie has an 8.1 rating on IMDb,and a 94% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.com. Reviews were very positive.
| Source | Reviewer | Grade / Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AnimeOnDVD | Chris Beveridge | Content: A Audio: B+ Video: B+ Packaging: A- Menus: B+ Extras: B+ | Disney DVD/Movie Review |
| Anime News Network | Christopher Macdonald | Overall (dub): A Story: A+ Animation: B Art: A- Music: B+ | Fox DVD/Movie Review |
| THEM Anime Reviews | Raphael See | 5 out of 5 | Movie Review |
| Error creating thumbnail: sh: convert: command not found |
   | ''My Neighbor Totoro'' - My Neighbor Totoro // Nausicaa.net |
| | Transcript of ''My Neighbor Totoro'' - Tonari no Totoro anime transcript - compare a translation and a transcript |
| | DVD Image Comparison - Lyris Lite || DVD Comparisons | My Neighbor Totoro |
| | ''Mei and the Kittenbus'' - Mei and the Kittenbus // Studio Ghibli Museum // Nausicaa.net |
| | Journal of Religion and Film: Shinto Perspectives in Miyazaki's Anime - Journal of Religion & Film: Shinto Perspectives in Miyazaki's Anime Film Spirited Away Grouped Notes |
| | Wikimapia satellite image of Totoro house at World Fair ExpoAichi 2005 - Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world! |
| | THEM Anime Reviews - THEM Anime Reviews 4.0 - My Neighbor Totoro |
| | AnimeOnDVD - My Neighbor Totoro - Mania.com |
| | Anime News Network - My Neighbor Totoro - Review - Anime News Network |
| | Who is Hayao Miyazaki? - Who is Hayao Miyazaki? |
| | My Neighbor Totoro - My Neighbor Totoro :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies |
| | My Neighbor Totoro - Chicago Sun-Times |
| | Spectrum Nexus My Neighbor Totoro Review - SPECTRUM NEXUS · Anime Reviews · My Neighbor Totoro |
| | Tonari no Totoro - Tonari no Totoro (1988) |
| | Spectrum Nexus - SPECTRUM NEXUS · Anime Reviews · My Neighbor Totoro |
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