You know what’s fun about reviewing My Neighbor Totoro? Besides the fact that it’s a delightful movie, it’s pretty great that it would be nigh-impossible for me to spoil anything for anyone reading this review. The plot can be summed up as: two little girls and their father move into a new house out in the country, where they meet some forest spirits. Also, their mom is sick. That’s not just the movie’s setup—it covers basically everything that happens. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop Totoro from being a fantastic movie from start to finish. If you’re worried about the lack of plot bothering you, it might help to imagine that instead of a movie, you’re watching several loosely connected animated shorts.
So, if it’s not the plot, just what makes My Neighbor Totoro so great? Well, the first thing should be obvious by now. Everybody, on three: the animation. Totoro was Hayao Miyazaki’s second film with Studio Ghibli, and oh my Ponyo, the animation. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with the animation in Nausicaä, Castle in the Sky, or Grave of the Fireflies, but this is the first Ghibli movie (chronologically) to really blow me away the way Ponyo did. There are some spectacular landscapes and great character design, but my favorite parts were when they chose to lovingly render mundane yet relatable moments. For example, they didn’t have to animate Satsuki walking on her knees in their new house so that she wouldn’t have to take her shoes off, but they did and it’s one of my favorite parts of the movie. |
We didn’t get the same level of Good Ghibli Food™ that we did in Ponyo or Castle in the Sky, but dang if I didn’t want to bite into the veggies from that old lady’s garden. On that note, I was continually surprised every time the old lady didn’t turn evil, which is one example of how this movie manages to have
tension without plot. Like I mentioned, there’s not a lot of narrative happening here, yet even so the movie manages to introduce enough tension to keep you engaged. It’s not exactly A Quiet Place*, but you do come to care for these little girls; whether they’re wandering off into spirit-filled woods on their own or just waiting anxiously for their dad to come home, the movie makes their plights matter. I think the waiting-at-the-bus-stop scene is the best example of this. Nothing really happens, but I felt for the sisters - as they wait for their dad’s bus on a dark, lonely, rainy night, I didn’t know if they would be frightened by forest spirits or just let down by their dad, but I was equally worried by either option. The excellent animation contributes to the audience investment by making the characters feel relatable and world feel lived in, and it also helps that this movie has my favorite protagonists since Nausicaä. Our two heroes are Satsuki and Mei, who are middle-school and toddler age, respectively. One of the things I found so remarkable and enjoyable about this movie was the care they took to really make both girls protagonists, and equally likeable ones at that. So often movies with similar characters make the younger sibling either unfailingly adorable and precocious or problem-generators. Mei is frustratingly but understandably childlike at some moments, but we also get plenty of chances to see her being brave, determined, and proactive. Satsuki, on the other hand, demonstrates kindness, patience, and remarkable maturity (probably a result of her mom not being home and her dad being pretty scatterbrained (but still a great dad)). They’re both great kids without feeling like fake kids. |
The other characters in Totoro are great in their own right - it’s a small cast, but a memorable one. The aforementioned old lady with the veggies obviously left an impression on me, and the extremely shy neighbor boy with a crush on Satsuki is just as endearing as the protagonists are (he even gets a mini-character arc).
Similarly to his daughters, Mei and Satsuki’s dad manages to walk the tightrope of being a fantastic father without feeling artificial. Sure, it takes him a worrying amount of time to notice that Mei has wandered off into the forest, but it’s impossible to stay mad at this man who clearly loves and cares for his daughters and is doing his best in essentially a single-parent situation. At this point, you may be wondering - is there anything wrong with this movie? And, well, sort of. I’ve brought up the whole “no real conflict/plot” thing several times now, and that’s capped off by the movie looking at its watch, saying “yeah, that’s probably long enough,” and cutting to the credits. But then again, the lack of a plot means that the abrupt ending doesn’t result in any plotlines being cut short, and honestly I don’t think it would have bugged me at all if I’d known it was coming. Oddly, there was significantly less Totoro in My Neighbor Totoro than I expected. This isn’t really a bad thing, since the human characters are plenty of fun on their own, but I was surprised at how incidental to the movie Totoro seemed. Lastly, the music is actually really good — this is the first Ghibli film where the music stood out to me — but as with Ponyo, the music takes a dramatic turn for the worse when there’s singing involved, as in the opening credits, which already go on a little too long. That’s it for complaints. My Neighbor Totoro is a classic for a reason. Bring kids if you got em, but this is a movie that everyone should enjoy. Next up: Kiki’s Delivery Service! This is one of the few Ghibli movies I’d seen before starting these reviews. I remember liking it, but it’s been a while. Alternate Titles: I got nothing this time. “Waiting for Totoro” came to me in the middle of the night and is my favorite review title since my first one (for Ponyo). Maybe this time, you come up with the alternate titles. *I misspelled this as “A Quite Place” and now I want a movie where British people are being hunted by monsters who can hear you having tea or forming a queue |