Please note: This review refers to the Japanese with English Subtitled version. The film is being simultaneously reissued in both original and English-dubbed versions.
The power of animation through the decades has one common trait – it remains a timeless creative process. No matter how the world changes, the power of animated storytelling will remain as contemporary as the day it was originally created.
Studio Ghibli have created some memorable offerings over the years, with the likes of SPIRITED AWAY (now reimagined on stage), PONYO, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE and last year’s THE BOY AND THE HERON, which continued to blaze a trail both at the box-office and on the awards circuit.
Now, it is time to step back nearly four decades for one of their earlier acclaimed successes, MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO, which originally hit cinemas back in 1988 and has been reissued through Elysian Film and Anonymous Content.
The film tells of two sisters, older Satsuki and younger Mai, who move with their father into a new rural homestead whilst their mother is recovering in hospital.
They discover a strange cluster of weird black mini-spherical beings hiding in dark corners, something which leads the two energetic siblings to believe there is something more to the location. Mai wanders off one time and notices a strange rabbit-like creature wandering around that seems to disappear in and out of vision.
Following the being, she enters the nearby forest where a ‘Totoro‘ awaits – and perhaps more adventures….
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO has all the trademarks of the unique vision of Studio Ghibli, a film that has the essence of classic children’s storytelling as a way of deal with deeper emotions and themes that feed into children’s own development as human beings. Strange imagery, such as a ‘cat bus’ stimulate and intrigue the eyes in a story that creates metaphors for grief and uncertainty that impacts children in their journey to grow up.
The film is being given a deserved re-release as a long-standing family favourite and is getting a new breath of life on the big screen in the midst of the huge critical and box-office success in the UK of THE BOY AND THE HERON, which won BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar awards to top up the £5m take in the UK alone.
There is a dream-like quality that prevails in the animation and it retains its’ mystical qualities and desire to enlighten a new generation of children as much as the ones who were enthralled on its’ original release.
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is in UK and Irish Cinemas again from August 2nd, 2024.
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