My Neighbor Totoro

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest Animation films ever
Review: I was at a store and saw My Neighbor Totoro on DVD and I flipped! I have it on VHS and it is one of the most enjoyable, beautifully painted and almost meditative films I have ever seen. Then, I was quite angry when I got Totoro home to find it is stupid full frame rather than letterboxed! Trust me, you do not want to miss any of the backgrounds in any of Hayao Miyazaki's films. This is why just 4 stars and not 5! This film is slow in pace, not for sugar-enhanced kids (or parents who need angry robots fighting in space. This is like looking up at the trees and clouds from a hammock on a warm summer's day. Tired of there being a lack of positive strong young girl characters in film? Hayao Miyazaki seems to have a father's love of them. When a film comes from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, it has nearly a 98% chance of being spectacular and wholly unique. Each of his films has a warmth, passion and innocence that seems to be completely lost in films found in the US mainstream cinema. Spirited Away or any other of Hayao Miyazaki's films, could never have been made in the US. I can hear the Hollywood execs saying this about My Neighbor Totoro, "Let me get this straight, two young girls meet a enormous friendly fuzzy ghost thingy with fangs and claws? Then they get magic acorns and there is a bus that really is a cat with lots of legs? Sounds like your client needs a twelve-step plan. Here's where I went." I seriously doubt that you could meet someone from Japan who doesn't know or maybe collect something from one of Studio Ghibli's films

Rating:
Summary: Didn't hold my attention
Review: I recently saw "Kiki's Delvery Service" and really liked it and thought this would be just as good given the glowing reviews. I was wrong. My children(3 and 6) didn't even sit through half of it. I was bored early on and while the story seems cute and holds possibilities, I was very disappointed. I got really disturbed by the characters' huge mouths. My kids even commented on the funny faces and big open mouths. And one thing I have noticed about these anime cartoons (even family ones) is the little girls keep showing their underpants. I think it's a little creepy. On a lighter note, fans of the Rugrats will notice that the little girl is voiced by the same person who does Angelica.

Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiece by the world's greatest animator
Review: I have been a huge Miyazaki fan for nearly twenty years now, but I am ashamed to admit that I have only now seen MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO for the first time. The reason is a good one, as reasons go: it was the last important film by Miyazaki that I had not yet seen, and I was saving it for a special occasion. I love seeing again films that I have loved the first time through, but there is always a special magic to seeing a film for the first time. Unfortunately, I now no longer have any Miyazaki films to see that I haven't already seen (at least until he finishes his work-in-progress, which has been given the tentative English title HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE). Fortunately, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO was worth the weight.

How does this film compare with Miyazaki's finest films? This is a hard question, because he has a large number clustered at the top, all of them excellent. I would be hard pressed to say this was better or worse than any of a number of others. However, each film is distinguished from the others by the mood and tone of the film. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO may be the gentlest and most peaceful of all his films. True, the girls have moved to the countryside with their father because their mother is in a nearby hospital recovering from a rather vague illness, and the forest is haunted, but the illness is never perceived as especially worrisome (except near the end, when a slight cold prevents her making a brief visit home, provoking a crisis with her daughters), and the spirits in the forest are remarkably benign and benevolent. There is nothing like the ecological apocalypse in THE PRINCESS MONONOKE and NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, or the parents who have been transformed into swine or threatening spirits of SPIRITED AWAY, or the armed conflict in CASTLE IN THE SKY. The world in this film is a loving world, all the way down to a remarkable creature that is a cross between Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat and a school bus (literally).

Miyazaki's animation is truly in a league of its own, and I mean that as strongly as possible. It has been decades since the Disney studios were capable of a fraction of the more challenging sequences that Miyazaki seemingly animates with ease. For instance, the wind and storm the first night the children spend in their new home display effects that Disney hasn't attempted since the more marvelous scenes in BAMBI. The way the wind is portrayed as moving through the tops of the trees, the hint of spraying mist, the manner in which the wind moves like a wave over the grass, the shuttering of the house under the assault of the air, are all things of remarkable artistry. Even more remarkable is that after this brief display of mastery, Miyazaki doesn't feel the need to build a huge storm with rain and lightening, but has the wind subside and give way to brilliant white clouds sailing across a moonlit and starry black sky.

Of all Miyazaki's extraordinary gifts as an animator and a storyteller, his greatest virtue might be his patience, and this is something he holds in common with many of the Japanese animators. American animated films are almost always frenetic affairs, in a great rush to fill the screen with activity, and in a hurry to get to the next part of the story. American animated films seem to be more interested in where they are going than in how they are getting there, while for Miyazaki the journey is the far more important part of the film. Certainly one reason for this is the distrust of the American film industry of the patience of the viewers, as if they are in abject terror of small children squirming in their seats if the story doesn't get a move on. Miyazaki, on the other hand, respects his viewers, and is confident that they won't give up on a film simply because the story moves at a steady pace. In MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, one of the sisters will begin to enter a room, look from one side to the other, take a step, look around again, and gradually and slowly discover what is inside. In many American films, a child would simply explode into the room and that would be it. As a result, every moment of the film becomes a discovery of marvelous and wonderful things.

I would say that this is a very special film by a very special filmmaker, except for the fact that for Hayao Miyazaki special seems to be the norm.

Rating:
Summary: The Reason for the Poor Packaging
Review: Ok, I'm a Miyazaki fan, we all know this movie is a masterpiece so there's no reason to bring that up. The movie easily gets 5 stars. The main concern here is the DVD. 20th Century Fox had very little to work with when they did this DVD. For those who don't already know, Disney has owned all of Studio Ghibli's movies since 1996. This includes My Neighbor Totoro in widescreen, Japanese, and anything they could hope to call an extra. That's why Disney is redubbing the movie and that's why this DVD has almost nothing on it and why they couldn't even remaster it. They worked with what they had and did the best they could. Of course, when Disney releases their version, it will have many more features(thought I don't think they will ever top this flawless dub unless they work their magic like they did with Spirited Away.)

Rating:
Summary: Totoro totally cool
Review: Miyazaki made two great films suitable for kids and adults, Nausicaa and the even more awesome Laputa. Totoro is a movie for kids only but it's beautiful, expressing basic themes of childhood wonders with simple means. Totoro is essential Miyazaki, the opposite of Spirited Away which is miscellaneous Miyazaki, his Ken Russell movie. Totoro has a purity of vision, a wonderful sense of dramatic proportion, a fine balance between the vulnerability of life and the limitless expanse of dreams.

Rating:
Summary: A modern classic
Review: I'm of two minds about FOX's Totoro release. On the one hand, this is truly one of the great animated classics of our time, a fun, beautiful, and imaginative story, sure to be enjoyed by children from pre-school to post-grad. ;) I highly recommend it to any parents with young children, as it is very easily enjoyed by both parents and kids watching together.

On the other hand, as a serious collector of Miyazaki's work, I find the release to be slightly substandard. Full-screen-only, dub-only, and lacking in the neat special features that highlight Disney's releases, this film might disappoint the serious viewer.

In short: if you have kids, buy it, and buy it soon. But if you want the best, most collectable and complete version of this film, import the Region 2 DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Great Film, HORRIBLE DVD
Review: Unfortunately, this DVD is a poor-quality pan-and-scan release. Needs to be indicated on the product description.

Rating:
Summary: Poor packaging of a wonderful film
Review: This film is one of my personal favorites. It is far above being an average kids movie. It is wonderful as a children's movie; it is a charming and clever work of art enjoyed by adults as well. It is also a favorite among the many fans of its creator, Academy Award winner Hayao Miyazaki.

Such a shame, then, to see the DVD presented so poorly, in TV aspect ratio and in English only. The Region 2 version of this DVD is much nicer, offering widescreen format, multiple language selections, subtitles, and extras including a map to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. Why, then, must we in Region 1 settle for such a lazy, lousy package? Why bother with the DVD? This is like having a videocassette.

If you just want something to pop in to keep the young kids out of trouble, you can't go wrong with this fascinating, magical yarn. If you are a film lover, DVD collector, or if you are looking to pad your experiences with the art of Hayao Miyazaki, I reccomend considering the fact that there are alternatives to this poor treatment, such as the Region 2 version.

Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: This is a great movie for kids or adults who haven't forgotten all the magic that goes along with being a kid. I don't want to give away any of the story, but I would like to recommend this DVD to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great film, shamefully bad DVD
Review: As you've probably already figured out from other reviews, there's a serious problem here... Fox has taken what is probably not just a great animated film, but one of the best films ever to come out of Japan, and has given it a US DVD release that is nothing short of a kick in the teeth to fans of the movie.

A quick glance at the back of the box will tell you pretty much everything that's wrong here. "Interactive Menus" are NOT a special feature. Neither is "Full-Screen Presentation". Certainly the complete absence of language options isn't a feature, although I'm almost surprised they didn't try to pass it off as one.

That having been said, everything about the movie itself is very, very right. The animation is beautiful, rich and detailed, and the story is simple enough for kids to understand, yet deep enough to reward multiple viewings. Although I'm sure some would disagree, I think the English dubbing is actually very well done, and as far as I know, the movie is, frame-for-frame, identical to the Japanese version -- although that's probably not so much a testament to Fox's wisdom as to their sheer apathy.

If you're a true "otaku", it might be worth your time and money to hunt down a region-free subtitled edition (I'm given to understand Buena Vista actually distributes one in Japan). But if you're just looking for a movie you can share with your kids that won't insult your own intelligence, look no further. This gem shines through even Fox's completely lackluster presentation.