Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
chinese_cartoons
I will get the positives out of the way first. The art and animation is high quality as expected from Ghibli, and Totoro is an amusing character; his 15 minutes worth of screen time is the highlight of the film. But there's just one problem...
Absolutely nothing happens in this film. There is no real plot, there are no stakes, there is very little depth. All that's left is a series of mildly uninteresting events interspersed with an irritating amount of children shouting. Even the one potentially interesting source of drama (regarding the mother in the hospital in the second half) is resolved pretty much immediately.
This film is another victim of Miyazaki's tendency to overly sanitise his work and his reluctance to kill off characters (no matter how many death flags they are waving) whi…
Read at the sourceYoungVagabond
I decided to watch this movie to entertain my 3 year-old, which it accomplished. However, this simplistic cartoon inspired more thoughts in me than almost any anime or movie I've ever seen. Wave after wave of insights washed over me, a few of which I wouldn't have realized even a year earlier. If nothing else, that's an impressive accomplishment, and something that none of the previous Miyazaki flicks I've seen ("Princess Mononoke", "Castle of Cagliostro", and "Spirited Away") managed.
Now, let's begin with the most obvious observations into the picture and work our way to the buried treasures;
MOST SHALLOW: This is an achingly gorgeous film. The way the grass moves when blown by the wind and the vistas are bathed by the Sun's golden, glorious rays. The intersection of the deep blue ir…
Read at the sourcesunsetclientele
This movie is perfect, in its own deeply weird way. It is indestructibly built and sprawlingly self-contained. It spends its brief runtime on just half a dozen characters and fewer locations, but i really don’t know if there is a more exhaustive way to explore its heartbreaking, intimate views on hope and dread.
Miyazaki’s best works always embrace the undercurrent of darkness in his concepts, touching on the unsettling to bring the levity more weight. It’s the same here—the threat of death is always present, either Mei's or her mom’s, and the entire film is constructed around the rambling search for a miracle to save their mother’s life. The mom’s sickness remains in the background the whole time, generalizing her disease to an unshakable feeling of bad things on the horizon. And there i…
Read at the sourceWerty800
My Neighbour Totoro begins with a cheerful ride of a family of three: two young girls and their father. The vast, watery fields, reflecting the morning light, as well as a distinct, towering forest pass by in a flash. Shortly after, the trio arrives at the steps of what's to become their new home.
Despite a bunch of rather large wooden pieces falling from the ceiling, dust covering the wooden panels and several dark, mysterious creatures scattering around the floors, this home is immediately filled with energy like no other. As the kids playfully traverse the insides and rummage through rooms, their sudden, over-the-top movements—animated with incredible precision and fluidity—begin the process of bringing a smile to the viewer's face. This process, for me, was pretty much complete as soo…
Read at the sourceVeiledEdge
My Neighbor Totoro is a wonderful telling of child curiosity with some sprinkles of coming of age. It's surprisingly flat on plot, but I can't really tell you what I was expecting. I wanted... more, but I don't know why. It was a perfectly fine film. The story is really cute, the characters are really cute and compelling. It looks amazing, but for some reason, I was expecting Spirited Away. This is nowhere near that. This is the last Miyazaki review I do for a while. Nothing really seems to have the same impact on me as Spirited Away. It's disappointing.
Read at the sourceItIsIDio
Before the "what the fuck is wrong with you, a 5 on a ghibli movie, kill yourself" settles in, I want to assure you that the movie did everything that it set out to be outstandingly and if I was from that target audience, I would probably consider it nothing short of a masterpiece. I usually prefer to criticize a show for what it tried to be but failed while presenting every factor I deemed important about the movie and why eventually it was only an average experience for me. In this case, I don't have a lot to criticize on what the movie actually tried to do because it was succesful in what it did. So all I can present is what factored into my experience only a 5 with what the movie has had done and has not done.
Starting with the movie's strong suits, the artistic side of it is outstand…
Read at the sourceBig_Man_Ting
My Neighbor Totoro is the flagship of Ghibli and one of the first Japanese animated feature films to receive wide critical acclaim in the west. As much as its successor 'Spirited Away' capitalized further in terms of revenue, Totoro stands as one of the most influential anime, with the ubiquitousness of Totoro plushies and pop culture references to it still present today. But there are reasons beyond its success that attributes it as a must watch on the checklist of any avid fan of anime.
Whether this was your first anime movie as a newcomer, as a kid, or as a moviegoer, none can contest the brilliance of Miyzaki in developing a world filled with awe and wonder, boundless playfulness and imagination, whilst proficiently capturing the natural innocence and curiosity present in every child…
Read at the sourcepissedassbinch
It's often easy to get carried away in the everyday vices and tribulations of life. We often want to reminisce and look back on the better days, full of adventure and enjoyment. Well, this movie does an excellent job of bringing me back to that feeling. It is full of heart-whelming adventure, and exploration.
I always seem to watch this movie or any Studio Ghibli film for that matter, when I am wanting to experience a child-like sense of adventure. Miyazaki does am excellent job of creating a world, in which you would love to explore and experience. From the stellar landscapes, to the loving Characters, it is all here to enjoy.
Overall, please watch this move and many more of Miyazaki's films. They are pure magic.
Read at the sourceTheCriticsClub
Childhood is a blossoming period of learning and developing one's own idiosyncrasies. It has always been a sedate stage in which little youngsters define themselves through their senseless antics—ones that appear innocent but are of an elusive nature, and are merely an inadvertent expression of the capricious phase that is childhood. However, since kids are so full of youthful tendencies, very few directors have managed to portray the rascals in a sincere and realistic manner. But among those select few is an irreplaceable Ghibli film which has become a sensation both within its native community and the western world—and that film is Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro.
My Neighbor Totoro is, simply put, a child's imagination brought to life; fanciful tales that become reality, replete wi…
Read at the sourcetrzr23
I was down with the flu and I was curled up in my room, looking for something cozy to watch. Flipping through my collection, I suddenly remembered the My Neighbor Totoro DVD I had received as a gift a while back. Needless to say, I popped it into my player, sat back and had one of the most relaxing and peaceful 90 minutes of my life.
My Neighbor Totoro is hard to synopsize because of the tranquil and laid back first half. I suppose it would suffice to say that this classic 1988 Studio Ghibli movie is about the innocent fun of two little sisters who move into a house in a village, along with their father, only to find out that the picturesque place can be more mysterious than they thought. My Neighbor Totoro has bagged several awards over the years and helped bring Japanese animation into…
Read at the sourcePiperun
Tonari no Totoro - Would be one of the best Animes I saw when I saw little.
Even thought it might been more based towards girls, it still stayed neutral as a soiled stone for both genders.
The story here is rather simple but still has a very detailed view on things that happens around it, it doesn't focus just on one thing (like defeat the EVIL monster or find that person) no it goes from 2 girls just moving in with their dad to an adventure with an Creature called Totoro.
- Which for a kid were really an inspiration for the beautiful nature we have (even though we don't really have a cat bus or cool old houses, it still show us how beautiful the surrounding is).
Even then it doesn't stop there - It even show us a bit of drama and emotions we as a child could feel (Sadness, anger, disa…
Read at the sourceLadyReina
“A four-year-old child could understand this report….Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can't make head or tail out of it.”
- Duck Soup
Sisters Satsuki and Mei love each other; as affectionate playmates, they grow under their scholarly father’s calm and accepting hand. He doesn’t dismiss their play, nor does he inflate it in the artificial way that adults do; he simply acknowledges their wonder, without rationalizations. The one shadow in this world awash with sunshine is that their mother can’t be with them yet. But Satsuki and Mei are growing up at a time when neighbors still come by to welcome newcomers and lend a hand, and the neighborhood grandmother is everyone’s grandma.
At its most lyrical, My Neighbor Totoro shows life as it floats, free and easy, in a stream of happ…
Read at the sourcekekekeKaj
If you're one of those people who still don't know what that thing featured on the Studio Ghibli company logo is, then the chances are, you haven't seen "My Neighbour Totoro" (for a while I thought it was meant to be a rather odd looking donkey myself). Well then, you've been missing out!
"My Neighbour Totoro" is a delightful film that most young children - as well as a good proportion of older viewers - are sure to enjoy. It's not a particularly deep film, nor a particularly exciting film. At the heart of it, it's a simple tale about a family relocating to the countryside and the children meeting some weird and wonderful creatures, but it is so much more than that. The magic is in the characters, for "My Neighbour Totoro" is filled with some of the cutest, most iconic characters in anime…
Read at the sourceSkarmory
It's cute!
As a 20 year old male I am extremely outside the target audience for this movie. Yes, this movie is for kids. In fact I'd go as far to say that this is one of the best movies for children of all time. It's a simple story. It's also an incredibly happy movie. You feel better after watching it. I can see having this movie watched over and over again by my kids when I'm a father. It's just cute and safe.
But if you consider yourself an anime fan, and you like the Miyazaki movies you've seen so far, and even though you are probably outside the target demographic, you have to see this movie! If anything just to see the movie that gave Studio Ghibli its mascot.
Read at the sourceTuskus
My Neighbor Totoro is a weird movie. It's also one of Hayao Miyazaki's first directorial works as well as his first film with Studio Ghibli. Totoro is often cited as classic anime, but is it really any good? It's hard for me to say; I'm not a big fan of Miyazaki or family movies. It's a bit melodramatic, though some people would rephrase it as touching. It's hard to relate to the main characters because they're so annoying! They seem to yell all the time. My Neighbor Totoro also has Miyazaki's signiture trippy scenes, such as Totoro with the umbrella and the catbus. While I didn't particularly like this movie, I'm sure that most people will. It's not hard to find, so you might as well give it a shot.
Read at the sourceTonagi
Sigh...How should I describe my most cherished and precious childhood memory of my whole life so that I wouldn't understate it at all?!?!
After all, Tonari no Totoro is the first anime and probably even the first full-length film I ever saw. It is the key that opened the first door towards the wonderful world of anime, manga and the whole japanese culture itself. I'm not such a type that has certain idols/authorities behind my ideologies but if there's one, it is definitely Hayao Miyazaki.
When I try to explain to someone how incredible this movie is, I almost can't put it in understandable words (like even now). With an innocent, simple and pure storyline, Studio Ghiblis outstanding animation, Joe Hisaishis B E A U T I F U L music and imaginative characters like makkuro kurosukes, you g…
Read at the sourceKenkei
I remember Totoro was my favorite anime. I'd pop it in the VCR player (yes, old school, I know) and watching it with my little brother when I was a little girl. Somewhere around 14 years later, it's still my favorite movie, and probably always will be.
Totoro's story is incredible: it captures the imagination of two girls with very different personalities. Satsuki, the older, responsible girl who takes care of household responsibilities while her mother is sick, and little Mei, a veritable firecracker who's curiosity knows no limits. What made this movie so incredible was how well it captured the imagination of kids their age. Just watching it makes you think back about all those fun things you did when you were younger, whether you're helping your parents with chores or you're outside pi…
Read at the sourceJTurner
What more can be said about My Neighbor Totoro? Get this movie. Immediately. Without a doubt one of the best animated features ever made, Japan or otherwise, Totoro is an outstanding original creation from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
It's about two sisters -- Satsuki and spunky little Mei -- moving with their somewhat scatterbrained but loving father to a new home in the Japanese countryside. But the place isn't just deserted; wonders galore lie within their household. Tiny, fuzzy black balls of soot ("Soot Gremlins", or "dust bunnies", depending on which English version you watch--but more on that later) scatter every nook and cranny of the walls, frightened away only by laughter. A tall, luscious camphor tree towers above the other trees in the back yard.
And, lastly, the Totoros…
Read at the sourceNeonToppaTotoro
STORY: My Neighbor Totoro is simple and whimsical. Although the story is a children's fable, the heart of the tale can draw out the child in everyone. The movie begins in a period of transition for a family, and the movie concludes alongside the end of the transition. The finished product is like a meaningful photograph. The events occurring in the story or picture are not life changing. It's the memory and feeling you take away that holds the worth of the story in Totoro. However, the story is not ground-breaking or awe-inspiring. But the it is delightful and unforgettable.
ART: Consistent, good quality in animation can do wonders for the experience, and this work is another fantastic example of Studio Ghibli's dedication to their art. The scenery in the film is immersive, and the world…
Read at the sourcejet2r0cks
Another win for Miyazaki!
The story was just unique. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it – and originality is always a good thing. It had me watching closely the whole time. It’s a story for kids and kids at heart alike.
It was like watching a Dr. Seuss story come to life, except it has a Miyazaki spice to it. Another good thing about it is that it’s easy to understand, but not so easy that it’s dumb.
The characters were all very likable. I like adorable Mei, and her doting older sister Satsuki. I also love how their father is so child like – he’s definitely not one of those stern looking dads. Finally, Totoro and is companions were fun to watch. I kinda want to meet him myself.
And because it’s a Miyazaki movie, you’d ex…
Read at the source