My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Once in a while I think about how few films about goodness. Most film are considered deep because they delve into the darkness of the human soul or dare to look evil in the eye. My Neighbor Totoro is basically about help and the friend you need in hard times. The much needed friend in this case is a huge, round cat-like troll. The film was released in 1988, the same year as the much sadder but equally captivating Grave of the Fireflies (directed by Takahata). The story is very simple. A father and his two daughters are moving to the country. Their mother is hospitalized and the grown-ups only half-admit how seriously ill she is. However, unlike many other movies about kids (and for kids) My Neighbor Totoro is not structured around alienation between grown-ups and children. Miyazaki creates a world in which fantasy and reality need not be clearly demarcated. This is also a film in which nature is depicted as inviting and kind rather than scary and threatening. One of the daughters explore the close surroundings of the house and she is lead by a small bunny-like figure through the woods, into a tunnel that takes her to a huge creature. Neither the creature, nor the woods, is seen as dangerous. If the film has a message, it is an ecological one. If anything, the film inspires a sort of wonder. Instead of expressing contempt for its viewers by piling adventure on adventure My Neighbor Totoro is a rather quiet movie that tackles big emotions and situations. It is also one of the very few movie I know of that in a way that does not seem sentimental places reverence and moments of communion and togetherness at its center.