My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

 

Off-List: My Neighbor Totoro

1988 is one of those years where there is so much good and interesting stuff to add to the List, yet when I noticed “My Neighbor Totoro” was a 1988 movie, I was not in doubt I had to add this one. There are a few Ghibli movies on the list, but, surprisingly, not this one and that despite when you look for Ghibli merchandize, the Totoro figures are the most iconic ones. Did I mention my son is an avid fan of everything Ghibli?

“My Neighbor Totoro” takes place in rural Japan, sometime in the fifties. A university teacher, Kusakabe, and his two children, pre-teen Satsuki and four-year-old Mei, are moving into an old, deserted house. The mother is in the hospital during the entire movie, suffering from some illness that keeps her there and is a constant worry for the family.

The story is very much seen from the eye-height of the two children. They are very energetic, everything they do seem to happen at a frenetic pace, and they have a lively imagination. When they believe they see something, the father is not rejecting it, but plays along. The girls see soot-mites escaping into crevices when they open doors to deserted rooms and rather than being afraid, they take delight in it. They are also spotting (Mei first, then later Satsuki as well) strange creatures dropping acorns in the house and the garden. Mei, following the creatures into a thicket surrounding a giant tree, ends up with a gigantic, furry creature who seems benign and says just one word, “Totoro”. Later, while waiting for a bus to meet her father, Satsuki also meets Totoro. He is simply standing next to her in the iconic image at the bus stop. She lends him an umbrella, and he gets on a gigantic cat bus before her father arrives.

A few days later there is a telegram to contact the hospital immediately. The girls worry something has happened to their mother. Satsuki tries to get hold on their father while Mei simply wanders off towards the hospital. Satsuki is upset Mei is lost but gets help from Totoro and the catbus to find Mei and then get to the hospital. The girls do not enter, but the parents find an ear of corn with a message from the girls on the windowsill.

Miyazaki combines a number of his classic elements in this movie. First of all, there is the world as viewed from the eye height of a child which both involves what is important to a child but also the magic that the child sees in the world. Another element is nostalgia for a time past. Miyazaki is taking us back to his own childhood where he moved from the city to rural Japan and the world he met there. Something he would reference a lot in “The Boy and the Heron”. Finally, the animistic spiritual world of nature plays a large part in “My Neighbor Totoro”. The world the girls see is not just their imagination, but a spiritual grey-zone where they are in touch with forces in nature that are very much part of traditional Shinto beliefs. Not that Totoro himself is a Shinto deity, but Shinto allows for nature spirits that you need to respect. Both “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away” go down that road in a big way.

The girls seem to be allowed access to this world because the possibilities are never denied them. Where other parents may be keen remove such fanciful thoughts from the children, the father and the local old woman known as Granny never deny the girls’ claims and even encourage it. If the girls had been very sad about moving to the countryside, the magic world could be an escape, but that is not the case at all. Instead, the magic is part of the excitement of moving to the countryside and for the girls simply an extra dimension to be in. This world does offer help when they need it, but as an ability, not as an escape. In this way the nature-spiritual world is not a crutch but a bonus and an altogether much more positive thing.

As all Ghibli movies, “My Neighbor Totoro” is on the surface a children’s movie, but one with messages to adults as well. It seems to lack a plot, but that is because it is so much more focused on a state of things. This is less about overcoming a story-arch crisis as about achieving a communion with a spiritual reality.

Finally, not to forget, “My Neighbor Totoro” is a beautifully drawn movie. As in all Miyazaki’s movies the backgrounds are hand drawn to exquisite perfection. Totoro is now an iconic Ghibli creature, and I think many children all over the world are very familiar with it.

“My Neighbor Totoro” is a necessary watch in the Studio Ghibli universe and I highly recommend it.