Miyazaki Madness, Part 4: "My Neighbor Totoro" is the definitive Ghibli classic

Everyone aboard the Catbus for another review!

On Thursdays, I’m publishing reviews of classic movies, including pieces that have never appeared online before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). In this series, we are examining the filmography of my all-time favorite movie director - and newly minted two-time Oscar winner with his win for The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki! We will be looking at all of his theatrical feature films along with the movies he wrote but did not direct, for a total of 15 weeks of Miyazaki Madness! The series continues today with Miyazaki’s fourth and most famous feature, 1988’s My Neighbor Totoro. Enjoy…

My Neighbor Totoro

1988, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Originally published July 12^th, 2012 for The Denver Post’s YourHub, Online and in Print

As a student of film, I consider Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki my Sensei; no critical appraisal of the medium’s outer limits can be performed without examining his work, and for American audiences used to the rigidity of Hollywood structure, his films are as revelatory as they are rapturous.

The 1988 children’s classic My Neighbor Totoro stands near the top of Miyazaki’s canon. It is a profoundly simple film, one devoid of plot, antagonists, or contrivances. It depicts fantastical occurrences, but grounds them in some of the purest emotional truths any film has ever offered.