My Neighbor Totoro
Last night I watched My Neighbor Totoro. This was just a beautiful film to watch, and I only have a little to say about it beyond that. This is the simplest of Miyazaki’s films, or at least of the ones I have seen. It only runs about ninety minutes. There are no complicated themes. Half of the characters speak very little or not at all, including the eponymous Totoro. There is no antagonist. There isn’t even a plot. Normally that last omission would qualify for major demerits in my book, but I do make an exception for good, descriptive slice-of-life stories, a rare category in Western storytelling to which Totoro enthusiastically belongs.
The film strikes me as a children’s work-cute, cuddly, magical, and featuring youngsters in the lead-but one written with an adult audience in mind. I wonder if this isn’t one of Miyazaki’s most nostalgic works, as evinced by a comfortable and totally pure setting, the spiritual veneration of nature, the adulation of the high imagination without a care for practicality or reality, the absence of a unified dramatic conflict, and particularly by the line in the ending song, “You only see [Totoro] when you’re very young”-a lyric he wrote himself. Perhaps this is a children’s work for adults.
Catbus
Despite its simplicity, My Neighbor Totoro does have a strong dramatic profile. The episodes of the story are plenty dramatic, and the film as a whole is composed with a flowing mood, achieving two major high points-the first joyous and the second tense-and several distinct adventures, all of which help to summarize the entire progression of the story while at the same time illuminating audiences as to the purpose of this story. Miyazki’s growing skill as a filmmaker is on display as he tugs so cleverly at the audience’s emotions. For instance, when the little girl Mei gets lost trying to take an ear of corn to her mom at the hospital all by herself, she is eventually rescued hours later, still clutching the ear of corn. How amazingly more poignant! A good storyteller can do these sorts of things, using the most commonplace objects to weave in their audiences the most powerful emotional responses.
Being Hayao Miyazaki, he also tugs at the audience’s imaginations, of course. You needn’t watch any more than the opening title to understand this. This is a film of high wonders and fancies-including the famous Catbus-melded almost perfectly into the idyllic, serene life of the countryside.
The characters in this film are surprisingly diverse, given how little development most of them get. Each one is distinctive, with their own personality and style. While all of them are echoed in other Miyazaki works, few are derivative beyond the author’s own repertoire. “Granny,” Miyazki’s typical wise old female stereotype, is one exception, but even she comes off well-rounded-a strength partially attributable to the actor who did the voiceover in the English dub. I’ll be watching the subtitled version shortly, and will be comparing notes.
The score is not bad. Despite being inferior to the soundtrack of films like Laputa, it has plenty of creative high notes, and both the opening title song and the ending song were surprisingly emotional for me, given their childlike simplicity. (Indeed, that was part of their power.)
My favorite character is the surprisingly mature Satsuki, who, despite being one of Miyazaki’s youngest protoganists, is also one of his cleverest, smartest, and most emotionally controlled. She breaks down only once in the whole film, and, not surprisingly, this show of emotional vulnerability adds to her character’s credibility…it comes off as completely genuine, and helps remind us of how young she actually is. Satsuki is a character with a bright future! Her younger sister, Mei, is only four years old, and serves as a perfect contrast to her older sister. She also strikes me as one of the best examples of accurately matching a very young character’s personality to their age that I have ever seen on film. If Satsuki’s future is bright, Mei is young enough, and has been raised with enough kindness and guidance, for her future to still be limitless-one of Miyazaki’s most cherished themes.
My only complaint with Totoro is that, as with many of Miyazaki’s earlier pictures, it doesn’t have a coherent dénouement. I only realized it was about to end about fifteen seconds before the credits began to roll. A little more closure would be nice, and although the ending credits do provide some of that, I’d prefer it to be less abstract.
I would easily recommend this film to anybody who has the patience and enthusiasm for descriptive, imaginative storytelling. Folks who are averse to films with a slow pace, or films whose plots don’t go anywhere, may be less enthralled by it. Due to the combined limitations of its shortness, absence of a plot, and sudden ending, I can’t consider Totoro for the highest ratings, but I am content to give it a very high B-plus at this point in time. After Laputa and Spirited Away, this may be my favorite Miyazaki film.
The film strikes me as a children’s work-cute, cuddly, magical, and featuring youngsters in the lead-but one written with an adult audience in mind. I wonder if this isn’t one of Miyazaki’s most nostalgic works, as evinced by a comfortable and totally pure setting, the spiritual veneration of nature, the adulation of the high imagination without a care for practicality or reality, the absence of a unified dramatic conflict, and particularly by the line in the ending song, “You only see [Totoro] when you’re very young”-a lyric he wrote himself. Perhaps this is a children’s work for adults.
Catbus
Despite its simplicity, My Neighbor Totoro does have a strong dramatic profile. The episodes of the story are plenty dramatic, and the film as a whole is composed with a flowing mood, achieving two major high points-the first joyous and the second tense-and several distinct adventures, all of which help to summarize the entire progression of the story while at the same time illuminating audiences as to the purpose of this story. Miyazki’s growing skill as a filmmaker is on display as he tugs so cleverly at the audience’s emotions. For instance, when the little girl Mei gets lost trying to take an ear of corn to her mom at the hospital all by herself, she is eventually rescued hours later, still clutching the ear of corn. How amazingly more poignant! A good storyteller can do these sorts of things, using the most commonplace objects to weave in their audiences the most powerful emotional responses.
Being Hayao Miyazaki, he also tugs at the audience’s imaginations, of course. You needn’t watch any more than the opening title to understand this. This is a film of high wonders and fancies-including the famous Catbus-melded almost perfectly into the idyllic, serene life of the countryside.
The characters in this film are surprisingly diverse, given how little development most of them get. Each one is distinctive, with their own personality and style. While all of them are echoed in other Miyazaki works, few are derivative beyond the author’s own repertoire. “Granny,” Miyazki’s typical wise old female stereotype, is one exception, but even she comes off well-rounded-a strength partially attributable to the actor who did the voiceover in the English dub. I’ll be watching the subtitled version shortly, and will be comparing notes.
The score is not bad. Despite being inferior to the soundtrack of films like Laputa, it has plenty of creative high notes, and both the opening title song and the ending song were surprisingly emotional for me, given their childlike simplicity. (Indeed, that was part of their power.)
My favorite character is the surprisingly mature Satsuki, who, despite being one of Miyazaki’s youngest protoganists, is also one of his cleverest, smartest, and most emotionally controlled. She breaks down only once in the whole film, and, not surprisingly, this show of emotional vulnerability adds to her character’s credibility…it comes off as completely genuine, and helps remind us of how young she actually is. Satsuki is a character with a bright future! Her younger sister, Mei, is only four years old, and serves as a perfect contrast to her older sister. She also strikes me as one of the best examples of accurately matching a very young character’s personality to their age that I have ever seen on film. If Satsuki’s future is bright, Mei is young enough, and has been raised with enough kindness and guidance, for her future to still be limitless-one of Miyazaki’s most cherished themes.
My only complaint with Totoro is that, as with many of Miyazaki’s earlier pictures, it doesn’t have a coherent dénouement. I only realized it was about to end about fifteen seconds before the credits began to roll. A little more closure would be nice, and although the ending credits do provide some of that, I’d prefer it to be less abstract.
I would easily recommend this film to anybody who has the patience and enthusiasm for descriptive, imaginative storytelling. Folks who are averse to films with a slow pace, or films whose plots don’t go anywhere, may be less enthralled by it. Due to the combined limitations of its shortness, absence of a plot, and sudden ending, I can’t consider Totoro for the highest ratings, but I am content to give it a very high B-plus at this point in time. After Laputa and Spirited Away, this may be my favorite Miyazaki film.