The Japanese have always held a more pantheistic view of the world that sees spirits and gods, or yokai and kami, living rather close to them in manifestations of nature. My Neighbor Totoro is very unlike the sensibilities of modern western fantasies that often see children as the sole “bridge” between the mundane and magical. There is honestly a lot to enjoy about this film but there are caveats to the experience.
I’m starting to understand why fans of the Ghibli community obsess over the studio’s animated depictions of food. The world itself is a character filled with vibrant colours, textures and distinct style. What keeps your attention though is the contagious whimsy of the characters and beautifully hand-drawn animation on-screen. Most of the film follows the family trio throughout their day-to-day activities, often yielding little to no drama.
The film takes its time to create the world before our very eyes in painstaking detail as our characters walk through it with all the urgency and clarity of vacationing tourists. Like Makoto Shinkai, the director’s focus is on immersion and atmosphere. Miyazaki doesn’t bother to rush emotional stakes or launch into long expositions. Some viewers may find the plot and pacing of Totoro slow or meandering, but frankly, I found it quite refreshing. The girls must now navigate through a tumultuous period away from their beloved mother with a little help from their friendly, neighbourhood troll. One particular neighbour that they didn’t count on meeting is a giant furry forest creature, Totoro. There should be space in our lives for serious thought, but there should also be space to just daydream about being swept away from our problems on a giant Catbus.It doesn’t take long for them to make friends with their neighbours whether it be house caretaker Nanny and her grandson Kanta, or Satsuki’s classmates. While all of Studio Ghibli's movies carry deeper undercurrents that you could dig into if you really wanted to- Princess Mononoke, for example, can be read as a prediction of the injustices in our modern world-you can also watch them at face value: Totoro can be nothing more than a giant, fluffy creature that wants to be friends, if that's what you need him to be.Īs we immerse ourselves in a world of weird-looking creatures and unfamiliar mythology, we can carve out a little distance for ourselves from all that harsh reality. Ho uses to refer to the inability to separate ourselves from stressful news. Those all sound better than giving into the cycle of "doomscrolling," as the journalist Karen K.
(Perhaps for the sake of our already-at-wits'-end emotions, we should all agree to hold off on Grave of the Fireflies, which has been called one of the saddest animated movies ever-since, really, can any of us handle that right now?) There are more serious animated films like The Wind Rises, which follows the life of an aviation engineer, and lighter ones like Ponyo, which explores the friendship between a magical goldfish and a boy on dry land.
Headed by the beloved director Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli's worlds are full of imaginary creatures, witches, giant babies, and all sorts of other fantastical characters and settings.
We can do all of the above, and according to the website, streaming the entire Studio Ghibli collection will afford anyone with an HBO Max membership over 21 blessed hours of magical escapism. We can skip into the woods with Totoro fly through the air on a broomstick with Kiki of Kiki's Delivery Service join a pack of wolves in Princess Mononoke befriend spirits in the haunted bathhouse of Spirited Away and get swept into the wings of the dreamy, Christian Bale-voiced Howl in Howl's Moving Castle.