My Neighbor Totoro

My daughter needed a little hand-holding when Totoro (a friendly forest spirit) made loud noises, but this is her absolute favorite movie. Even though she didn't understand the whole movie at first (and may still not understand parts of it), she loves the imagery, the forest spirits, and the characters. I like that there is no villain -- too many kids' films for my taste feature the presence of absolute evil whose existence is never explained, and I'd rather not have my child see the world in terms of good and evil this way. Totoro has conflict, misbehavior, and scary bits, but all the characters have motivations we can understand and discuss.

I saw this movie at a very young age. For nearly my entire life I have been in love with this beautiful, exquisite film. Seeing this film at toddler age, I vividly remember how I felt about the film. The only scary thing was the scene at the beginning, when they first move into the old house, and Mei and Satsuki are looking for more acorns and go up into the attic where there is a very startling scene about Mei finding dust sprites. But that my mother easily had fast-forwarded past. Besides that, I didn't understand any of the serious parts. Like the fact that their mother was very, very sick. In fact, when they said the mother just had a cold in the movie, I really believed that it was just a cold. Anyway I loved the movie too much to feel scared. Satsuki and Mei are wonderful characters, and their father is lovable and a little clueless to what the girls actually do during the day. At least it's not anything to cause worry. Just spending the day with a huge furry beast that protects them from harm. This movie is a very relatable, beautiful family film that isn't the kind of film made exclusively for youngsters. People of any age can appreciate the beautiful messages and intense love that this film has to share. Soon your kids will be collecting golden acorns and looking for cute little dust sprites and connecting with nature. And if not, at least they got to see a sweet movie that has all of that. But really, there's so many magical elements that this movie holds, I don't want to waste your time naming all of them, just see the movie!

The fact that it gives a solid view of a past Japanese culture (that still survives on the same foundations today in many respects) makes it educational for older children. The role-model presented in the older sister should be an inspiration for younger girls looking for how to handle the younger sibling, especially the ones that are a handful. If more people looked and acted towards this way to each other, even in families themselves, so many issues we see today would be much more controllable in a social sense. While the soot sprites and initial encounters with the various Totor's and Catbus might be a bit scary to younger children it's also something that you can use to help children get past the bogyman phase on several levels as well as teach a spiritual aspect to nature that we so often try to push on young ones but don't give them the concrete connection they need to understand it. The tie to Shintoism and nature and ancestor spirits is yet another learning area for people unfamiliar with Japanese culture. This is one of my 1 year old and 4 year olds favorite movies and with the message and ideas it presents it's definitely one I don't mind them watching again and again.

My daughter and I both love love love this movie. We can both watch it over & over.... My doing so says more than hers, though, I suppose. ;) The animation, the story, the relationships, the imagination behind the story and characters/objects... all make this a heart-warming, timeless, endearing film. I wish every movie for children were at least a little bit more like this. I also fell in love with Elle Fanning (see her in _Phoebe in Wonderland_ -- not for kids) from this movie. She and sister Dakota do the voices for Satsuki (Dakota) and Mei (Elle). I was concerned the ill mother or Mei running off might be bothersome for my sensitive daughter, but it is handled so sensitively -- and not at all "Hollywood-ized," exploited, or otherwise over-dramatized -- that she just rolls with it. I highly recommend it as a quality movie for both parents and kids.