Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 86 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1988
The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!
This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to. I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.
What's still to come are:
Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.
Set in the Japanese countryside (assumability the rice farming area), the story is about the Kursakabe family, consisting of two daughters Satsuki and Mei (older and younger), their father Tatsuo, and their mother Yasuko who's staying in a hospital in the city because of her weak constitution. I'm guessing that moving out to the country-side was for their mother's health because Tatsou is a archeology teacher at a university, and the commute sounds hellish.
All of their earthly possessions are right there.
Either way, the Kurasakabe family loads all of their earthly possessions onto one of those... cars, I guess, I actually don't know what they are, but I've seen them in pictures.
Have you ever seen one of these in real life? The shrine... not...
They arrive at their new home which... looks like Luigi's Mansion on a clear day (an obscure reference to an old Gamecube game which is strangely a lot of fun to play). Though I can't complain, I've lived in worse.
Their new house.
They have a moving day, inspecting the house and discovering many new and interesting things about their new abode. Such as the fact that it's haunted by living soot balls, or "Soot Gremlins".
Cough.
They apparently aren't dangerous, they can just get in you lungs, give you the Black Lung, and kill you (my opinion, I mean... they're balls of soot! That's not a good thing!).
And so they settle into their new life there. Satsuki starts going to a local elementary school, dad goes to teach at university, Mei starts exploring the local property (she's 4) and mom's... sitting all bored in the hospital.
During the course of her investigation, Mei discovers... the creatures on the Ghibli logo.
So they're... Ghiblis?
... I like it.
Mei follows them deep into the forest, and then into a hole in a tree, right out onto...
A big bear.
I don't know about you, but unless you're brain-damaged, you have the general sense that standing on the top of a clawed creature 20 times your size is a bad idea. It's kind of like a basic instinct.
But Mei's not worried at all, and God knows why, because she's not brain-damaged, she's 4... okay, she's... inexperienced with the ways of killer beasts.
Turns out, it's a god, or something along the spiritual path, even better! I think I'll walk on a god's stomach and see what happens.
But Totoro's (that's it's name; Totoro) one of those cool, chillaxed gods/spirits. Not many of those outside Japanese philosophy/mythology (I don't want to offend anyone here).
So now the Kurasakabe's have got a new neighbor; Totoro, hence the title. Miyazaki's sneaky like that. So the rest of the story is about their interaction with the fuzzy Totoro, and about their mother(who's in the hospital, remember?).
Along the way they discover many new and wonderful things about the countryside, their other human neighbors, and ways to get around the "Shoe Custom".
Do you take off your shoes when you go inside? I personally think it's kind of creepy to wear shoes inside, I was raised where you took off your shoes because of the carpets and hard-wood floors. Plus I live in Hawaii, we're a melting pot.
This was a fun movie. Actually it was (and I hesitate to use the word) sweet. I don't like using this word because I usually use it in a different situation (usually applying to girls).
I wouldn't say that it was funny, but I did notice that it had those moments where you smiled without being amused (per sea), hence the "sweet" thing.
It was Miyazaki all over, I mean, he even wrote the ending song; Totori no Totoro, which wasn't bad, just like the opening song.
... And nobody does the "Tough Walk" like Studio Ghibli.
(Since I'm on the topic) The music wasn't bad, but again, not to my taste. It was kind of the music you see in children's movies and stuff, and as I already stated a while back, I'm more into rock/techno music. Don't worry, I'm making a point to review an anime that has my type of music in it presently, though I don't know exactly when I'm getting to it...
Japanese, though the English dub was very good. I don't know what happened (though on a side note, Satsuki and Mei were played by actual sisters I think, people with the same last name at least).
You should probably watch this movie. It appears to be Miyazaki's brain child or something, and it's an experience either way. I mean, would you want to miss...
CATBUS?!
I know I wouldn't.
Coming up next!
Day 4: Kiki's Delivery Service!
