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My Neighbor Totoro
Japanese theatrical poster for My Neighbor Totoro
Directed by	Hayao Miyazaki
Written by	Hayao Miyazaki
Produced by	Toru Hara
Starring	Chika Sakamoto Noriko Hidaka Hitoshi Takagi
Cinematography	Hisao Shirai
Edited by	Takeshi Seyama
Music by	Joe Hisaishi
Production company	Studio Ghibli
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	April 16, 1988 (1988-04-16)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

My Neighbor Totoro (Japanese: となりのトトロ, Hepburn: Tonari no Totoro) is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film – which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi – tells the story of the two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Film in 1988.

The film was released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States by Tokuma Japan Communications' US subsidiary in 1993 under the title My Friend Totoro.

In 1988, Streamline Pictures produced an exclusive dub for use on transpacific flights by Japan Airlines. 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 Walt Disney Pictures on March 7, 2006 and by Madman on March 15, 2006. 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.

Plot

In 1958 Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move into an old house to be closer to the hospital where their mother Yasuko is recovering from a long-term illness. Satsuki and Mei find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari – small, dark, dust-like 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 leave the house to drift away on the wind. It is implied that they are going to find another empty house – their natural habitat.

One day, Mei sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass and follows the ears under the house. She discovers two small magical creatures who lead her through a briar patch and into the hollow of a large camphor tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars that she interprets as "Totoro". She falls asleep atop the large totoro, but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground in a dense briar clearing. Despite her many attempts, Mei is unable to show her family Totoro's tree. Her father comforts her by telling her that this is the "keeper of the forest," and that Totoro will reveal himself when he wants to.

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 and combine 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 Yasuko has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment. Satsuki, disappointed and worried, tells Mei the bad news, which Mei does not take well. This leads into an argument between the two, ending in Satuski angrily yelling at Mei and stomping off. Mei decides to walk to the hospital to bring some fresh corn to her mother.

Mei's disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search for her. Eventually, Satsuki returns in desperation to the camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the lost 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, overhearing a conversation between their parents and discovering that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold and is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where it is discovered by the parents, and return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus departs, it disappears from the girls' sight.

In the end credits, Mei and Satsuki's mother returns home, and the sisters play with other children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.

Cast

Production

Art director Kazuo Oga was drawn to the film when Hayao Miyazaki showed him an original image of Totoro standing in a satoyama. The director challenged Oga to raise his standards, and Oga's experience with My Neighbor Totoro jump-started the 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."

Oga's conscientious approach to My Neighbor Totoro was a style that the International Herald Tribune recognized as " 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.

The opening sequence of the film was not storyboarded, Miyazaki said, "The sequence was determined through permutations and combinations determined by the time sheets. Each element was made individually and combined in the time sheets..." The ending sequence depicts the mother's return home and the signs of her return to good health by playing with Satsuki and Mei outside.

The storyboard depicts the town of Matsuko as the setting, with the year being 1955; Miyazaki stated that it was not exact and the team worked on a setting "in the recent past".

The film was originally set to be an hour long, but throughout the process it grew to respond to the social context including the reason for the move and the father's occupation.

Miyazaki's said Totoro " not a spirit: he's only an animal. I believe he lives on acorns. He's supposedly the forest keeper, but that's only a half-baked idea, a rough approximation." The character of Mei was modeled on Miyazaki's niece.

Release

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".

In 1993, Tokuma Japan Communications' US subsidiary released the first English-language version of My Neighbor Totoro, with the title My Friend Totoro. However, because of his disappointment with the result of the heavily edited English version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki would not permit any part of the movie to be edited out, all the names had to remain the same (with the exception being Catbus), the translation had to be as close to the original Japanese as possible, and no part of the movie could be changed for any reason, cultural or linguistic (which was very common back then) despite creating problems with some English viewers, particularly in explaining the origin of the name "Totoro". It was produced by John Daly and Derek Gibson, with co-producer Jerry Beck, and was available on VHS and laserdisc. This was the only United States home video release of the film from Tokuma (20th Century Fox would release all upcoming English-language releases of the film until 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 was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on 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.

Critical reception

My Neighbor Totoro has received positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes calculated a score of 92% based on 37 reviews from film critics, with an average score of 8.3/10.

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". In his review, Ebert declared "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.

The 1993 translation was not as well received as the 2006 translation. Leonard Klady of the entertainment trade newspaper Variety wrote of the 1993 translation, that My Neighbor Totoro demonstrated "adequate television technical craft" that was characterized by "muted pastels, homogenized pictorial style and 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." Stephen Holden of The New York Times described the 1993 translation 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."

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.

My Neighbor Totoro ranked #41 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

A list of the greatest animated films compiled by Terry Gilliam in "Time Out" ranked the film #1. A list of the greatest animated films compiled by the editors of "Time Out" ranked the film #3.

Phillip E. Wegner makes a case for the film being an example of alternative history citing the utopian like setting of the anime.

The main character of the film, Totoro, ranked 24th on IGN's top 25 anime characters.

Cultural impact

My Neighbor Totoro set its 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. 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." The Financial Times recognized the character's appeal, " is more genuinely loved than Mickey Mouse could hope to be in his wildest – not nearly so beautifully illustrated – fantasies." Totoro and characters from the movie play a significant role in the Ghibli Museum, including a large catbus and the Straw Hat Cafe.

The environmental journal Ambio described the influence of My Neighbor Totoro, " 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. 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.

Totoro has made cameo appearances in multiple Studio Ghibli films, including Pom Poko, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Whisper of the Heart, even appearing on Studio Ghibli's logo. Additionally, various other anime series and films have featured cameos, including one episode of the Gainax TV series His and Her Circumstances. 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. My Neighbor Totoro is also parodied in the South Park episode "Mysterion Rises" in a couple of scenes where Cartman plays on the belly of the dark lord Cthulhu and later flies on the inderdimensional monster to the tune of the iconic end credits song from the film's soundtrack. 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". In SpongeBob SquarePants, Totoro makes a cameo appearance in some of the episodes. Also, the Samurai Jack episode "Jack and the Creature", and the Bob's Burgers episode "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal" pay homage to this film. A Totoro plush makes an appearance in Pixar's Toy Story 3. Totoro also makes a cameo appearance in "The Powerpuff Girls" episode Criss Cross Crisis

In the video game Ni no Kuni, a NPC called "My Neighbour Tomtoro" can be found once the tournaments in Solesseum start. While not a cameo, the usage of the name is attributed as an easter egg, as Studio Ghibli produced the animated cutscenes in the game.

A main-belt asteroid, discovered on December 31, 1994, was named 10160 Totoro after the film's central character.

In 2013 a velvet worm species Eoperipatus totoro, recently discovered in Vietnam, was named after Totoro: "Following the request of Pavel V. Kvartalnov, Eduard A. Galoyan and Igor V. Palko, the species is named after the main character of the cartoon movie "My Neighbour Totoro" by Hayao Miyazaki (1988, studio Ghibli), who uses a many-legged animal as a vehicle, which according to the collectors resembles a velvet worm."

Media

Books

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. 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. A 111 page-picture book based on the film and aimed at younger readers was released by Tokuma on June 28, 1988 and, in a 112-page English translation, by Viz on November 8, 2005. A 176-page art book containing conceptual art from the film and interviews with the production staff was released by Tokuma on July 15, 1988 and, in English translation, by Viz on November 8, 2005.

Anime short

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. Chika Sakamoto, who voiced Mei in Totoro, returned to voice Mei in this short. Hayao Miyazaki himself did the voice of the Granny Cat (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 (the 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, 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 and at a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fundraiser a few days later.

Soundtrack

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. It has since been re-released twice, once on November 21, 1996, and again on August 25, 2004.

All music is composed by Joe Hisaishi

See also

• Japan, Our Homeland and Mai Mai Miracle (also depicting Japan in the 1950s)

Notes

1. The susuwatari are called "black soots" in early subtitles and "soot sprites" in the later English dubbed version.

References

1. My Neighbor Totoro (Media notes). Hayao Miyazaki. Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 2006 .{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
2. http://www.madman.com.au/studioghibli/collection/totoro/
3. ^ Watsuki, Nobuhiro (2005). The Art of My Neighbor Totoro: A Film by Hayao Miyazaki. VIZ Media LLC. ISBN 1-59116-698-5.
4. Kikuchi, Yoshiaki (2007-08-04). "Totoro's set decorator". Daily Yomiuri.
5. ^ "When Studio Ghibli is mentioned, usually the name of its co-founder and chief director Hayao Miyazaki springs to mind. But anyone with an awareness of the labor-intensive animation process knows that such masterpieces as Tonari no Totoro...". International Herald Tribune-Asahi Shimbun. 2007-08-24.
6. "Toy Story 3 Art Director Married to Hayao Miyazaki's Niece – Interest". Anime News Network. 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
7. McCarthy, Helen (1999). Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. pp. 43, 120–121. ISBN 1-880656-41-8.
8. "My Neighbor Totoro Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
9. Ebert, Roger (2001-12-23). "My Neighbor Totoro (1993)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
10. Klady, Leonard (1993-05-06). "My Neighbor Totoro". Variety. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
11. Holden, Stephen (1993-06-14). "Review/Film; Even a Beast Is Sweet as Can Be". The New York Times.
12. Leyland, Matthew (June 2006). "My Neighbour Totoro". Sight & Sound. 16 (6): 89.
13. "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema – 41. My Neighbor Totoro". Empire.
14. Time Out's 50 greatest animated films, with added commentary by Terry Gilliam. Archived from the original October 9, 2009
15. Out, Time. (2014-04-16) 100 best animated movies ever made. Timeout.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-12.
16. Phillip E. Wegner (2010-03-14). "An Unfinished Project that was Also a Missed Opportunity: Utopia and Alternate History in Hayao Miyazakis My Neighbor Totoro". English.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
17. "Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time". IGN.
18. ^ Pilling, David (2007-09-15). "Defining Moment: My Neighbour Totoro, 1988, directed by Hayao Miyazaki". Financial Times.
19. Forbes, Dee (2005-11-07). "Analysis Cartoons: Toontown's greatest characters". The Independent.
20. Kobori, Hiromi; Richard B. Primack (June 2003). "Participatory Conservation Approaches for Satoyama, the Traditional Forest and Agricultural Landscape of Japan". Ambio. 32 (4): 307–311. doi:10.1639/0044-7447(2003)032[0307:pcafst]2.0.co;2. PMID 12956598.
21. Giardina, Carolyn (2008-08-27). "'Neighbor' inspires artists". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
22. "Who's A Needs A Tummy Rub? (Season 14, Episode 12) – Video Clips". South Park Studios. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
23. "Turning Dreams into Nightmares (Season 14, Episode 12) – Video Clips". South Park Studios. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
24. "Ni No Kuni – A Few Magically Hidden Easter Eggs". The Tech Stuff. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
25. "10160 Totoro (1994 YQ1)". Solar System Dynamics. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
26. "A new species of Eoperipatus (Onychophora) from Vietnam reveals novel morphological characters for the South-East Asian Peripatidae". doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2013.01.001. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
27. Miyazaki, Hayao (May 28, 1988). フィルムコミック　となりのトトロ (1) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4-19-778561-2. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
28. Miyazaki, Hayao (May 28, 1988). フィルムコミック　となりのトトロ (4) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4-19-778564-3. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
29. "My Neighbor Totoro, Volume 1". Viz Media. Retrieved 2014-01-02. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
30. "My Neighbor Totoro, Volume 4". Viz Media. Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
31. Miyazaki, Hayao (June 28, 1988). 徳間アニメ絵本４ となりのトトロ (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4-19-703684-4. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
32. "My Neighbor Totoro Picture Book". Viz Media. Archived from the original on 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
33. Miyazaki, Hayao (July 15, 1988). ジアート　となりのトトロ (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4-19-818580-0. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
34. "The Art of My Neighbor Totoro". Viz Media. Archived from the original on 2010-12-22. Retrieved 2008-09-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
35. "Miyazaki Plans Museum Anime Shorts After Ponyo". Anime News Network. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
36. "三鷹の森 ジブリ美術館 – 映像展示室 土星座". Retrieved 2008-04-08.
37. "Synopsis – Page 1". Lasseter-San, Arigato (Thank You, Mr. Lasseter). Nausicaa.Net. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
38. "Synopsis – Page 6". Lasseter-San, Arigato (Thank You, Mr. Lasseter). Nausicaa.Net. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
39. "Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) Soundtracks". CD Japan. Neowing. Retrieved 2008-09-30.

External links

• Official U.S. website

• My Neighbor Totoro (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• My Neighbor Totoro at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• My Neighbor Totoro at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mei and the Kitten Bus (2002) at IMDb
• Mei and the Kittenbus at Nausicaa.net
• Entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

• 1988 films
• 1980s fantasy films
• 1988 anime films
• 1988 animated films
• Animated fantasy films
• Animated feature films
• Anime with original screenplays
• Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners
• Children's fantasy films
• Drama anime and manga
• Fantasy anime and manga
• Films directed by Hayao Miyazaki
• Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
• Films set in 1958
• GKIDS animated films
• Hayao Miyazaki
• Japanese films
• Japanese-language films
• Studio Ghibli animated films
• Toho animated films
• Walt Disney Pictures films