My Neighbor Totoro

[baumer]

This was released in the US at the Hollywood film festival, so it qualifies.

[Jack Nevada]

A perfect movie in every way. One of the best fantasy films ever5/5

[luna]

the scenes with the totoro are delightful, but everything else is a little dull. not as inventive as i was expecting. the environmentalism here is more palatable than in princess mononoke, but that one was more visually exciting. overall: unbearably cute fluff.

 

B-

[Lordmandeep]

Lol fun movie rather low key compared to other similar films but it has the cat bus!

 

[luna]

yeah lol, best part of the movie

[Lordmandeep]

Yeah I was rather okay with the film but the Catbus scene made me so warm and fuzzy inside... 

[Goffe]

First half bored me to tears and made me never want kids of my own. I just can't stand these thinly storied movies, let alone thinly storied animes. After the fifty minute mark, it gets better, but not enough to redeem everything before it. 45/100

Ghibli Marathon
Princess Mononoke 80/100
Castle in the Sky 60/100
My Neighbor Totoro 45/100
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind 35/100

 

[cannastop]

This movie gets mad props in the Sight & Sound poll, actually. 11 critics voted for it in 2012, which I'm pretty sure is the highest number for any animated film in the poll.

 

It's not my favorite Hayao Miyazaki movie, but I can definitely see why it would be someone else's. Of the movie's I've seen of his, it's the one that most brazenly doesn't have an actual plot. It's only 88 minutes though, so you can take it or leave it.

 

Lots of people say that it's uninterrupted whimsy, which isn't exactly true either, as there actually is peril faced by the main character and her sister, And there is a sick mother, inspired by Miyazaki's own. He said that the film would be too sad or affecting for him to make if he made it about two brothers, so he made it about two sisters instead. Why he gravitated to female protagonists in his other movies is a different question.

 

As for the dub, I mean, it's OK. I don't like that they dubbed over Totoro himself though.

[cannastop]

OMG! I just found out that the creator of the MOTHER/Earthbound video games was the voice of the dad in this movie. In Japanese of course. Shigesato Itoi.

 

[KP1025]

It's been a while since I watched this, but I remember the voice of the younger sister (Japanese version) was super irritating. 

[cannastop]

5 hours ago, KP1025 said:

It's been a while since I watched this, but I remember the voice of the younger sister (Japanese version) was super irritating. 

Well I don't remember that, but I guess I'm always more interested in the ways different languages are spoken than in being annoyed.

[KP1025]

33 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Well I don't remember that, but I guess I'm always more interested in the ways different languages are spoken than in being annoyed.

 

Hmm, I guess it's not as bad as I remembered. You can hear a little in the beginning of this trailer. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the film at all, but I did think the voice didn't really match the age of the character. 

 

 

[cannastop]

35 minutes ago, KP1025 said:

the voice didn't really match the age of the character. 

Yikes. Just looked up the Japanese voice actors for the two main characters.

 

They were... pretty old.

Edited August 4, 2019 by cannastop

[cookie]

On 8/4/2019 at 2:00 AM, cannastop said:

Yikes. Just looked up the Japanese voice actors for the two main characters.

 

They were... pretty old.

Isn't that kind of standard practice for animated films and shows? Even more so in the 80s.

Edited August 9, 2019 by cookie

[cannastop]

Just now, cookie said:

Isn't that kind of standard practice for animated films and shows?

Not all of the time. They had the Fanning sisters do the Disney dub when they were actual kids.

[cannastop]

Just watched the GKIDs/Fathom Events for this. Changed my mind again, this is a better movie than Kiki's Delivery Service.

 

While whimsical, it is also subtle.