Great stuff pal! You are so right it has a premise not a plot. It never ever feels like time is being spent on set-up of any kind, everything is always happening, right now, already. It's so elemental. I test-drove Kiki the other day to see if it was right for my kid and compared to Totoro I found it so laborious and slow in setting things up. It's not, really, but Totoro is so immediate it can't help but feel glacial by comparison
The dad is so amazingly chill, which is all the more amazing as it comes into focus what an impossible situation he's in. It always gets me when the mom says she worries about Satsuki and how she tries not to let on how hard it is on her having her in the hospital. It's true, obviously, but also so much so for the dad! He's commuting hours a day back to the city and trying to string together childcare and keep his kids fed. As you say, it's so cool the movie can have it both ways--it's a childhood idyll for the kids and a parenting nightmare for the adults watching and it moves back and forth between these modes so effortlessly and without judgment.
Also, frame for frame, scene for scene, this movie has to be a top contender for "most running" ever, right?
I was really looking forward to your review of this (and of course love it!), because My Neighbor Totoro is my absolute favorite of the Studio Ghibli movies, and also one of my very favorite movies period. And I only saw it for the first time because of my grandkids! I was visiting my daughter and her family I think 7 years ago and they insisted on watching it with me--I was immediately hooked!!! <3 I may be old, but I have complete love for this movie. I put it on every night to fall asleep to! And, I cry when I'm watching it also--it's a heartgrabber, isn't it? I was tearing up when I was listening to the song you posted from YouTube ;)
It's a form of comfort for me, I think. I've watched it so much that I have it memorized, and I turn the volume down to 3, so I can just barely hear it. It lulls me to sleep every time 🥰
And of course, there's probably the oddest fact about this movie (at least for me): the Japanese voice actor for the dad is Shigesato Itoi, who would later create the Mother/Earthbound series.
My daughter did love this movie — every time I see a reference to it I still think of her saying, “What’s that? What’s a Tototo? [sic] What’s the Tototo want? What’s the Tototo doing? WHY?” She must have seen this first in that three-year old stage where everything is a question, because that’s MY strongest memory about this movie.
In fairness to my daughter, though, I don’t think she liked it as much as Kiki. I think she found the sick mother stressful.
She ran around singing bits of the songs, and one day I went to pick her up from my parents' house and my mom was like, why is she singing about Skid Row, for God's sake?! 😂
I could see that. I feel like dead moms are such a weirdly omnipresent children's movie thing that for me it's kind of nice to know mom is absent here but she'll be back. But I don't know what I would have thought as a toddler.
So my 4y/o and I are watching Howl’s Moving Castle (for the 11th or 12th time) this very moment. We LOVE Totoro, too. I would love to read your thoughts on additional, newer Miyazakis, if you happen to get to it. In particular, their strange, charmingly arbitrary plot developments. (I don’t find any aspect of Totoro arbitrary, btw; I agree it is the best children’s movie.) At first I found these end-of-the-movie twists soapy and a bit annoying but now I’m like maybe I love them? Maybe I’m just beholden to a kind of too-tight story telling mode that values a narrow focus rather than the very, very additive nature of Miyazaki’s stories? I dunno… I’m positive you know more about storytelling than me so maybe you have thoughts? Thank you again for your writing.
We will get to them! Probably in like… a year. I'm interested your daughter loves it because my reaction to watching Howl's around when it came out was some version of "this movie makes no sense." That was partly because I was such a huge fan of the book.
You might like the Animation Obsessive about Ghibli storytelling linked in the notes, if you didn't look at it—I'm always a little wary of explanations about like… "Eastern storytelling" vs "Western storytelling"… but in this case I felt like I learned something.
Great stuff pal! You are so right it has a premise not a plot. It never ever feels like time is being spent on set-up of any kind, everything is always happening, right now, already. It's so elemental. I test-drove Kiki the other day to see if it was right for my kid and compared to Totoro I found it so laborious and slow in setting things up. It's not, really, but Totoro is so immediate it can't help but feel glacial by comparison
The dad is so amazingly chill, which is all the more amazing as it comes into focus what an impossible situation he's in. It always gets me when the mom says she worries about Satsuki and how she tries not to let on how hard it is on her having her in the hospital. It's true, obviously, but also so much so for the dad! He's commuting hours a day back to the city and trying to string together childcare and keep his kids fed. As you say, it's so cool the movie can have it both ways--it's a childhood idyll for the kids and a parenting nightmare for the adults watching and it moves back and forth between these modes so effortlessly and without judgment.
Also, frame for frame, scene for scene, this movie has to be a top contender for "most running" ever, right?
I was really looking forward to your review of this (and of course love it!), because My Neighbor Totoro is my absolute favorite of the Studio Ghibli movies, and also one of my very favorite movies period. And I only saw it for the first time because of my grandkids! I was visiting my daughter and her family I think 7 years ago and they insisted on watching it with me--I was immediately hooked!!! <3 I may be old, but I have complete love for this movie. I put it on every night to fall asleep to! And, I cry when I'm watching it also--it's a heartgrabber, isn't it? I was tearing up when I was listening to the song you posted from YouTube ;)
I'm glad I'm not the only person who cries over this movie! I've never tried sleeping to it, though.…
It's a form of comfort for me, I think. I've watched it so much that I have it memorized, and I turn the volume down to 3, so I can just barely hear it. It lulls me to sleep every time 🥰
And of course, there's probably the oddest fact about this movie (at least for me): the Japanese voice actor for the dad is Shigesato Itoi, who would later create the Mother/Earthbound series.
trying to think of some thematic connection here and failing
My daughter did love this movie — every time I see a reference to it I still think of her saying, “What’s that? What’s a Tototo? [sic] What’s the Tototo want? What’s the Tototo doing? WHY?” She must have seen this first in that three-year old stage where everything is a question, because that’s MY strongest memory about this movie.
In fairness to my daughter, though, I don’t think she liked it as much as Kiki. I think she found the sick mother stressful.
My daughter's favorite movie was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6_PLwY43io
your daughter was afraid of nothing!
She ran around singing bits of the songs, and one day I went to pick her up from my parents' house and my mom was like, why is she singing about Skid Row, for God's sake?! 😂
I could see that. I feel like dead moms are such a weirdly omnipresent children's movie thing that for me it's kind of nice to know mom is absent here but she'll be back. But I don't know what I would have thought as a toddler.
I should say that _I_ had terrible taste. This was like… my favorite movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c25nxQ3Xgc
She certainly watched that movie a lot and loved it, but I think the first viewing was a bit upsetting until the end.
So my 4y/o and I are watching Howl’s Moving Castle (for the 11th or 12th time) this very moment. We LOVE Totoro, too. I would love to read your thoughts on additional, newer Miyazakis, if you happen to get to it. In particular, their strange, charmingly arbitrary plot developments. (I don’t find any aspect of Totoro arbitrary, btw; I agree it is the best children’s movie.) At first I found these end-of-the-movie twists soapy and a bit annoying but now I’m like maybe I love them? Maybe I’m just beholden to a kind of too-tight story telling mode that values a narrow focus rather than the very, very additive nature of Miyazaki’s stories? I dunno… I’m positive you know more about storytelling than me so maybe you have thoughts? Thank you again for your writing.
We will get to them! Probably in like… a year. I'm interested your daughter loves it because my reaction to watching Howl's around when it came out was some version of "this movie makes no sense." That was partly because I was such a huge fan of the book.
You might like the Animation Obsessive about Ghibli storytelling linked in the notes, if you didn't look at it—I'm always a little wary of explanations about like… "Eastern storytelling" vs "Western storytelling"… but in this case I felt like I learned something.