Miyazaki Reviews: My Neighbor Totoro

so, I finally am at a movie I just saw a day ago and not a week ago, so what do I do?....procrastinate for a couple more weeks. I dunno, maybe its better for me to not have it so fresh in my mind =I But Anyways, My Neighbor Totoro:
My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 film by Miyazaki and was both his third film, and the third Studio Ghibli film (though for different reasons but whatever). As Miyazaki put it, "it was a film I had to make someday in my career"...or something like that. Damn procrastination. Anyways, the story begins with a Professor and his two hyperactive and giant-mouthed daughters, Satsuki and Mei (see, Satsuki is "May" in Japanese, OH YOU SO CLEVER MIYAZAKI), moving into their new apparently haunted house on a hill in rural Japan. On their way they meet "Granny Not-Really-Your-Grandma-Stop-Calling-Me-That" and the local town love interest AND HIS AMAZING COLOR-DEFYING HAT that never really amounts to anything. But seriously, its a random farmer boy with a police-man's hat for no reason at all...anyway--

I will name you Squishy

As they go into their rugged new abode, the little girls' antics zoom all over the house to find strange ghostly creatures with barely anything to do with the plot whatsoever except reveal the idea of spirits. Then it shows their tidying up of the place, the two girls goofing off some more, and we learn that their non-existant-mother-until-this-point is actually in the hospital with a deathly illness. Though it is never explained why they moved up to The Haunted Mansion, my guess is to find cheaper living grounds, seeing as it doesn't seem any closer to the big city and the hospital. So later that night a storm's a brewin and daddy has some good ole fashioned bathing time with his two adolescent children in one tub all together...Japan is weird.

I NEED PICTURES DAMMIT

Anyway, the next day Satsuki, the older of the two, goes off to school and Mei stays with her dad in the creepy old temple house thing. As her dad is busy working on....something, I dunno. Mario's Pricross? his small 4 year old girl follows a strange invisible rabbity-thing(not that one!) into the deep darkness of the forest without supervision whatsoever. As she chases the rabbit-being, she ends up falling down a rabbit's hole onto a giant rabbity-thing that is sleeping. With her annoying--I mean adorable giant mouth she tries to wake up the beast who is too lazy to eat the little nuisance. Hence forth, Mei randomly names the Snorlax, Totoro...after nothing at all. The movie says its a name for Trolls but Miyazaki says that he just thought of a completely random name, go figure. Anyway she falls asleep on the creature and wakes up being found by her father and sister in a small bush-hideout-thing. She then exclaims the passages of her story which they "believe it completely. sure."

PICTURESSSSSS

So what is assumed as a couple days later, Satsuki goes to school once more only to end up having Granny Babysitter bring in Mei who would refuse to stop crying until she saw Satsuki. So instead of giving the girl a spanking she is brought to the school and made to sit with her big sister until the end of class. After class, it starts to rain and they wait at the bus station for their father to come home from work. However it seems as he is running late or completely uncaring of his two only daughters waiting in the rain in the middle of a public bus stop. Either way, they wait until out of the blue, Totoro comes out of nowhere as Mei is sleeping on Satsuki's shoulders. He is armed with a big-ass leaf and is set to stand. Satsuki then gives her dad's umbrella to the beast to use as instead of the leaf. This proves to be amusing to the giant and he proceeds to jump making all the rain stop. He then reallizes he is late for a very important date, gives them random seeds as his gratitude, and goes off on his Cat-bus. Then the dad arrives and they all go home. woot. Then the rain comes back, Love Interest now with a WHITE HAT OH MY GOD gives them his own umbrella and runs away, and something else happens....damn procrastination...

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

anyways they plant the seeds that Totoro gave them the next day and later that evening get a visit from the plant-seeding fairy and his sister Dot....I don't even know what I'm writing at this point. But Totoro comes down on the umbrella Mary Poppins-style, let Mei and Satsuki latch on to him, and they make the plants grow into a gigantic tree that engulfs the entire house. This wakes up the father as well who does what any sane, protective father would do....smile and go back to bed.

Catbus awww yeeeah

The next morning it is revealed that their mother's illness is getting worse and she won't be able to stop by. This makes Mei extremely scared that she will kinda die. So she then disappears after a fight with Satsuki, and the entire village goes off to look for her. Satsuki believes she tried to go off to the hospital, so she then gives Flash a run-for-his-money litterally, and races off to look for her without a single stop for breath. Seriously, that girl can run. So then she decides to ask the local Frank Welkers of the business, Totoro and Cat-bus for help. She hurries back to find them with which they go off on a world of pure imagination to find her sister. They find her, and everything is right with the world, the end. No seriously, the end. They give their mother a piece of corn secretly, and thats it. A couple post credits and yah. Que Conclusion:

So thats My Neighbor Totoro in a nutshell. a procrastinated, seemingly drunken nutshell. You may have noticed the multiple references to fantasy children's classics in this review, like Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, etc. The reason for that is, like many other Miyazaki movies, My Neighbor Totoro has that sort of charm of wonder sprinkled over it, though moreso then some others that are more covered with a more complex storyline. It is said to be like the "Winnie the Pooh" of Japan. However unlike these other classics, My Neighbor Totoro lacks the sense of journey and other-worldliness. Its lack of storyline is both a fault and a plus. It gives a sort of sense of, "thats it?" with not really seeming like anything is truly accomplished. It really is just a film about two girls meeting a whimsical Spirit. This factor would work better if it actually had more than two or three spirits, but ends up feeling like it lacks there as well.

DAMN this review is long

Overall, I think it would work better if it either had more of a story and showing some more development for the children, instead they seem fairly well-off besides their mother's deathly illness which doesn't really seem to change as much as just gets back to normal. In other Miyazaki movies, the characters seem to develop more, however in this it doesn't seem like anything changes from when they meet the spirits to the end. Like I said, this would work if there were more than just two creatures. They don't go off into a giant wonder world, they just meet two mythical creatures and that seems to be it. While I seem to be panning this film, I still find it endearing though. Its an extremely basic concept, but despite all this lacking, it works. Overall, it could have been better, but it definitely is a unique experience sort of film that still does give you a sense of wonder....and damn was this review long wasn't it? Probably longer than the movie. Anyway, now I'm waiting for my next Miyazaki movie, hopefully I won't wait a month after watching it to review it though. Soooo seeya next time.

Next Time, Porco Rosso....I think.

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