[FREE] My Neighbor Totoro (1998)

So, after such a depressing animation film created by Isao Takahata, let’s go for a friendly family film! Well known for it’s cuteness, the spirit name Totoro makes its debut in Miyzaki’s 1988 film, My Neighbor Totoro! Here’s a fan made trailer:

The film follows when two young daughters of a professor move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan.

This is a great family film of all ages and I highly recommend this film. Not only does it introduces the ever loving Totoro, but also a tale of two sisters as they venture their backyard and befriends the neighbors, the wood spirits. This heartwarming relationship between humans and spirits demonstrate how innocent kids can believe in to the point to be able to see spirits. Despite how their father and the nanny comments of the nature of spirits, this also shows how as you grow up, what you believe in dwindles with knowledge, neglecting such spirituality.

This iconic Totoro is so popular; you can see products based on this loving spirit in stores as fluffy plushie or even in films or episodes such as South Park and Toy Story 3. If you though those little soot sprites are adorable, you can see them again in Spirited Away.

Otherwise, this film has a cute developing relationship between the older sister and her neighbor as you see more image scenes in the ending. This relationship creates a more of a minor relationship that Miyazaki always creates in almost every movie.