My Neighbor Totoro 1988 Review
Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro” is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt films of all time, animated or otherwise, which tells the story of two sisters who move into the Japanese countryside with their father, while their sick mother recuperates in a hospital. While staying in their rural home, the sisters encounter the titular Totoro, a large and lovable creature, as well as other woodland spirits as they go about their days.
The film is largely plotless, with no overarching thread or real conflict of any kind. There are no villains, and no one in any way acts maliciously, but the film doesn’t need a specific plot because it’s such a delight. It can be watched and enjoyed by an audience of all ages, across all languages-do watch it in the original Japanese with subtitles. The dynamic between the two sisters is beautiful and filled with pure joy and heart. In fact, the dynamic between all characters is lovely to see. Here the joys of family, friends, and nature-which are irrevocably connected with the former two-all coalesce into this one film, that leaves your mouth sore from all the smiling you do. Critic Roger Ebert said the world of this film was one we should live in rather than one we do, but perhaps he was being a tad bit cynical, though truthful at the same time. It makes you greater appreciate the small things in life, and the simple joys that comes from family and friends, which in reality are eternal joys.
The film is breathtakingly beautiful with its 2D animation, a style largely gone out of vogue in the west but brilliantly preserved in the east. Frame by frame the crafted hand drawn animation stuns you with its utter beauty, with such exquisite depth and detail in the images that on a rewatch you can find something new to appreciate that gives the world of the film a lived-in feel and an Edenic charm. This is a film that can be seen again and again and will never leave your bored. It lifts the spirits and warms the heart. Watching this film as a child leaves you in utter wonderment and delight; watching as an adult will make you a child once more.
5/5 Stars