We are huge fans of Ponyo, so I recently added another film by Hayao Miyazaki to our Netflix queue. My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro) arrived in the mailbox yesterday and we're already on our second viewing.
Originally released in 1988 and re-released by Disney in 2006, this enchanting film follows the adventures of two plucky sisters, Mei and Satsuki, who move to a new house in the countryside with their father. As they explore their new surroundings they encounter magical, protective forest spirits that can only be seen by children. Their adventures together unfold as the girls deal with the fact that their mother is absent, recovering from an unstated illness in a nearby hospital.
The combination of beautiful animation with extraordinary storytelling makes this film feel truly special. Miyazaki has a brilliant way of capturing the mundane patterns of ordinary everyday life as experienced by children and fusing that with a kind of mystical spirituality of the imagination. Every frame is poetry, whether depicting two girls trudging through the rain or flying through the clouds inside an incredible cat bus. I can't wait to check out another Miyazaki movie!
Sounds wonderful. Can't wait to watch it with the boys - maybe next visit.
ReplyDeletei adore studio ghibli, and this one is great! watched it so many times. if you like miyazaki i recommend his other animations spirtied away and howls moving castle, they are beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteWe´re also big fans of Ponyo around here, and also by Hayao, I highly recommend Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I hope you are watching them in Japanese with subtitles and not in English, cause the Japanese voices are just exquisite!!
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteNicola, thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteDanita, I will check your recommendations out, for sure. We watched the english-dubbed version of Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro since the kiddos are still too young to read subtitles. But I look forward to watching the original versions one day -- I'm sure the voicing is beautiful.
We are big Totoro fans here, too! Ponyo was a recent find and I can't tell you how many times we played "Ponyo" (I want ham!) at our house.
ReplyDeleteWe love My Neighbor Totoro.
ReplyDeleteThey are so visually appealing!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this film. I can't count how many times I've watched it. The animation of nature and habitat is so engrossing. So glad you've enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful that my mom got this from the library for us kids all the time growing up! I have such magical memories of that film.
ReplyDeleteI also love Ponyo, but not nearly as much as I love Totoro.
(I nanny a little 4-year-old boy who looks exactly like Ponyo. Weird but incredibly adorable.)
Yey! This is indeed great.
ReplyDeleteI saw this first when I was in college during our japanese language class.
Lovely piece :)
You are a great movie reviewer! I will check this out; we love Ponyo, per your recommendation.
ReplyDeleteHowl's Moving Castle is another wonderful Miyazaki movie! Y'all should definitely check it out too!
ReplyDeleteohhh i love my neighbor totoro. it has been one of my favorite movies since i was five years old.
ReplyDeletefor my fifth birthday party, my mother invited all the girls in my pre-school class -including a little japanese girl who spoke very little english and whose family had just moved to the US. i remember being really angry at my mother for inviting her. i didn't want her to come because i was kind of afraid of her. she was so different from me -she wore different clothes, ate different lunches and most of all, didn't speak my language. well, as a birthday gift she brought me a vhs tape of my neighbor totoro dubbed in english and a totoro stuffed animal. it was her favorite movie and it became my favorite movie too. something about the experience "clicked" in my mind and i had the realization that it is okay to be different and there is no reason to be afraid of someone for being different than you. we became great friends until my family moved away several years later.
such an important lesson to learn, and for me, partially thanks to this movie!