Around the World in 24 Frames 03.05.10: My Neighbor Totoro

Posted by Len Archibald on 03.05.2010

"Around the World..." continues its look at Studio Ghibli by highlighting one of the most beloved animated films of all time from either side of the pond, and the reason why we see that weird looking creature at the opening of every Ghibli feature.



OH CANADA!!!




THE REBUTTAL

Great effing movie!
Posted By: Guest#5439 (Guest) on February 26, 2010 at 02:28 AM

Yes it is. Yes it is, indeed.


Great piece.
A few spelling mistakes (ie. Mononoke)
but other than that, awesome!

It's good to see this movie get some exposure as it is (like you said) one of the greatest war movies ever made.
Posted By: Dylan (Guest) on February 26, 2010 at 04:08 PM

Thanks, Dylan for the kind words – and for calling me out on my spelling. I could go the easy route and say I've been a little distracted, but I have no excuses, as I do my best to provide the most polished column on 411. (btw, it is spelled M-o-n-o-n-o-k-e.)


For those wondering how they can find this, the DVD is finally back in print, currently being distributed by Section23 Films (formerly known as ADV).
Posted By: Alexander Case (Guest) on February 27, 2010 at 03:19 AM

This is what I hoped this little column would spark: the sharing of information like this that is vital for film-buffs. It has been suggested that I should offer more information about how to access some of these "forgotten" or "lost" gems – and I shall do my best to do that more often. Thank you very much, Alexander for the heads up.


They definately showed Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Monoke during "Miyasaki Month". I believe the 4th film might have been "My Neighbor Totoro" but don't hold me to that. They basically showed his four most popular/well known films.
Posted By: JLAJRC (Guest) on February 28, 2010 at 06:26 PM

This was in regards to a question I asked about what films did they show during "Miyasaki Month" on the Cartoon Network a few years ago. That definitely makes sense since they are/were his most popular works. Thanks for the research and thanks for your continual support of this column, JLAJRC!


THE RANT

Sponsored by...

BEATING TRAFFIC Trailer:


Most Friday's come and go with no fanfare or notice to me, really. This Friday is different. There is something significantly special about this Friday. Tonight, I premiere my debut-film Beating Traffic to friends, family and the press before I take it around the country in hopes of cracking a few film festivals. We do an encore viewing on Saturday night. This has been a long time coming.

I will give you a quick understanding of what these two nights mean to me. If anyone knows me well, they know that this is my life. My parents took me to see Steven Spielberg's E.T. at four years old and from that day I knew what I was put on this planet to do – but…this hasn't been easy for me. I am a perfectionist. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think it makes me sick, actually – as I've been suffering from ulcers and all types of complications. It's my fault – it's a trait that I have been working on since high school. I just feel like I need to be the best, and when I'm not – when I don't achieve that level of success that I feel I am capable of, I get very angry with myself. My parents have always said that I'm special and that God put me here to do great things. When you hear that from three years old, and if you don't have your head on straight, that can lead one down a pretty dangerous path. I made a lot of stupid decisions in my life. Ran with the wrong crowd. Ran away a lot, actually. To avoid the weight of "expectations" - but I love film too much. I've seen thousands of movies – from Birth of a Nation to Avatar. I've studied every major filmmaker in history from Scorsese to Griffiths to Kurosawa, Hawkes, Ford, Spielberg, Coppola, Hitchcock, Bergman, Welles, Murnau, Ozu, Fellini, Eastwood, The Coens, Altman, Truffaut, Godard, David Lean, David Cronenberg, David Fincher and James Cameron. I've even taken an interest in Edward D. Wood. These are my heroes. The people who I aspire to be like.

The inspiration for the content of this little rant of mine is from Mozart. One of my favorite films/plays is Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. It accounts the life of Mozart from the point-of-view of Italian court composer Salieri, who claims that he was the cause of Mozart's death. Salieri is a decently talented composer, and has fame and relative mainstream success, but the shadow of Mozart's greatness has always followed him. Example: he heard of Mozart composing symphonies when he was five while Salieri was still playing schoolyard games in his pre-teens. When Salieri finally encounters this prodigy, he thinks he is going to meet a wise, intellectual young man – but instead finds Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to be a brash, cocky, juvenile, and vulgar man-child. See, Salieri constructs music, while Mozart creates it – there is a difference, and in Salieri's eyes (and ears) Mozart's compositions are literally borne out from the hand of God. Therefore, Salieri feels he is cursed. He understands that Mozart's music will live forever and that his own music is nothing more than a passing mainstream fad. He is blessed with the ear to hear great music but not the God-given talent to create it. He doesn't understand why God would use such a vulgar and bore-ish human being to be His vessel, so he makes enemies with God and declares that he will destroy what he sees as the mocking of God by destroying His vessel in Mozart. It basically drives him bat-shit insane and at the end he lives out the days of his elder life hearing the music of Mozart become more immortal while his own slowly fades into obscurity.

I have been running away from this moment and up until recently, was living a very self-destructive lifestyle just so I wouldn't face it. It's not failure that I'm afraid of – I'm just scared of finally realizing my place in the universe. It is this self-aware lack of ambition that actually drives one of the main characters of Beating Traffic – and this film represents a catharsis to the limitations that I've placed on myself. This is the most important weekend of my life, as I find out if I'm taking the path that leads to Mozart, or Salieri.

Wish me luck!!!

***************************************

I love movies. They represent escapism, art, intellect and spirituality. Some are nothing more than popcorn flicks, designed to ease the burden of "real-life" for a couple of hours. Some bring important issues to the forefront that challenges how we perceive our surroundings. The most important thing for me – if one is a serious filmgoer – is to constantly expand and discover new movies. This includes experiencing stories told outside of North America.

Yes, I know: "I don't like to read while I watch movies". Well, neither do I, but I won't use that to prevent me from finding a great story within the screen. It is important, as human beings to discover other cultures and expand our perceptions of those different from us and how they see the world. There are reasons that Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini, Ozu and Truffaut are important in the movie world – They are just great at what they do.

I intend to highlight a new film every week that is considered "foreign-language"; now that definition is simple, yet broad and complex. For example, if you need subtitles to understand the events of the plot, I will discuss it. If it is a film from a primarily English-speaking nation, but is *NOT* in English (i.e. Leolo or Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner from Canada), I will discuss. If it is a film from outside the U.S. and it *is* in English, I will not discuss (sorry, Brits & Aussies) – for now. My goal is to shed light on some of these gems, and help quell the insatiable appetites for those who can't live without seeing a new movie. Enjoy!

となりのトトロ aka Tonari no Totoro: My Neighbor Totoro

Country: Japan
Release Date: November 4, 1988
Distributed by: Toho, Troma Films and Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 86 minutes
Cast:
Noriko Hidaka
Chika Sakamoto
Shigesato Itoi
Sumi Shimamoto
Hitoshi Takagi
Naoki Tatsuta
Tanie Kitabayashi
Toshiyuki Amagasa
Hiroko Maruyama
Masashi Hirose
Machiko Washio
Chie Kōjiro
Shigeru Chiba

Some films evoke an eternal fondness within me, much like re-visiting old friends and catching up with them. I get that feeling when watching E.T., The Godfather, Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 too-good-to-be-true-but-it-is fairy tale film, My Neighbor Totoro. There is just a sweetness and innocence that pours from the simple story of two young sisters befriending a furry forest spirit, that every time I engage in watching it, my brain somehow tricks me into feeling like I'm eleven years old again. If I am ever blessed with having children, this will be one of the first movies I show them.

My Neighbor Totoro helped bring Japanese animation into the global spotlight, and set writer-director Hayao Miyazaki on the road to success. The film's central character, Totoro, is as famous among Japanese children as Winnie-the-Pooh is among the British. Totoro was used as a mascot by the Japanese "Totoro Hometown Fund Campaign" to preserve areas of satoyama in the Saitama Prefecture. A main-belt asteroid has been named after the famous creature. Totoro has made cameo appearances in multiple Studio Ghibli films, including Pom Poko, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Whisper of the Heart. He's even shown up on Comedy Central's Drawn Together and South Park; he makes a cameo in the trailer for Toy Story 3 - Totoro is the character used for Studio Ghibli's main logo.



I can't truly fathom the widespread appeal that Totoro has, other than to echo the explanations of other critics: Totoro exists in an idyllic world that most good-natured human beings aspire to live in – even though hardships, hard work and even illness abound, there are no villains, no major conflicts and most importantly, no doubts. It is completely rational for a child to snuggle up to a woodland creature, explain it to their parents and instead of cynically scoffing at the notion of an imaginary friend, there is a positive acknowledgement and even encouragement of this acquaintance. Whether or not the adults themselves actually believe the children is a moot point; how often do we engage in – or have we experienced a systematic shakedown of childlike optimism? Too often we hear/say, "no", "there's no such thing", or "it's all fake, you know?" That kind of critical nature does not exist here. It's a simple message, one that Hayao Miyazaki sheds light on – and living in the current social fabric of constant fearmongering and hopeless "Chicken Little-isms", we need films like Totoro more than ever.

In 1958, the Kusakabe family, ten and four year old Satsuki and Mei, along with their father, move into an old house in rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where their mother is recovering from an unnamed, long-term illness. Almost immediately, the daughters find that the house is inhabited by tiny dust creatures called susuwatari — small house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. There is a patience and contemplative manner in how the girls discover all the wonders around them. The audience does not experience the cliché moments of a haunting score to evoke dread – even though there is a nuanced fear of darkness (which is a basic trait of human nature), it is quickly dispersed, though, as the children simply open the windows to let light into the room and wave to their father from upstairs.



The children - like any child involved in phenomena that their minds don't understand but their imagination may process as something spectacular – express their experiences with their father and Kanta, their grandmother. The adults don't brush their encounters as "figments of their imaginations", like most cliché Western films would (in order to create a sense of conflict or doubt; Screenwriting 101), nor is there a moment where the adults must "see for themselves" and encounter the creeks, shadows and potential dangers of the apparitions. There is a simple explanation from the grandmother, who probably believe in spirits more than the children do. I can vouch from my own life that when speaking to my grandparents, they have wondrous stories of their encounters with ghosts and spirits while living in Jamaica and Canada and it has been a foundation for my own imagination as well as my own beliefs in the fantastic.

Critic Robert Plamondon considers this difference in Japanese and American culture in this respect: "While it's a little hard to tell whether the adults really believe in them, not once does Miyazaki trot out the hoary children's literature chestnut of 'the adults think I'm a liar, so I'm going to have to save the world by myself.'" It is definitely what separates Asian horror (2006's The Host, for example) from American horror (almost any horror film made since 1978 in which the youth are the protagonists.)



The youngest sibling, Mei – while playing outside one day, observes two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures – that can appear and disappear at will. Up until now, I cannot figure out if she was being led, or if she just happened to follow these beings through the briar patch, and into the hollow of a large cinnamomum camphora tree. The scene was so matter-of-factly, and without so much of a hint of melodrama or tension – that it borders on numbing. To be honest, especially in the West – the audience is conditioned to expect conflict in everything they see in front of them. Aliens coming? They must be evil – or we must be evil. Darkness lurks? There must be a killer (or at least, a cat) around the corner. A strange creature appears? Either this is a shapeshifter with cruel intentions or another, more fearsome creature will emerge to threaten its existence. No, that does not happen, here.

Instead, Mei encounters and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "To-to-ro" (to note, in the original Japanese version, the name stems from Mei's mispronunciation of the Japanese pronunciation of the word "troll".) Her father later tells her that this is the "keeper of the forest". Now think on that. An amazing and fantastic event happens to this man's youngest child, and instead of showing disdain, doubt or being threatened by it, he simply acknowledges it for what it is. There isn't a false, forced moment. When Mei first meets Totoro, she falls asleep on his furry tummy. When Setsuki and her father search for the missing child, they find her pretty easily. She is asleep on the ground and the creatures have fled.



Another great moment: on a rainy evening, the sisters stop at a nearby bus stop to wait for their father. He does not arrive when he is expected to. I have a feeling under an unskilled and novice filmmaker, this scene would have been used to create tension and fear in the girls. Their mother is sick…Is something wrong with her? Is something wrong with the father, now? The shadows that color the road would grow darker. Appropriate music would cue to clue the audience in on the creatures underneath. We may see glowing eyes popping out of the hand-like branches of brittle, wilted trees; and the children would be frightened – doubly frightened, in fact, since they now must deal with glowing eyes popping out of scary-looking trees on top of where their father could be in lieu of their ill mother.

Instead, Mei falls asleep on Satsuki's back out of fatigue. Miyazaki uses this moment not as a tool of manipulation, but one of contemplation. He regards the wet streets. The sputter of the raindrops. The silence of the evening. It is what it is. Nothing is animated in a stylistic manner to stir an emotion that wouldn't exist unless it was animated in a stylistic manner. It is – as far as animation goes – one of the most realistic and painterly scenes ever filmed. Realistic, anyways – until Totoro just happens to appear beside Satsuki with a tiny, pathetic leaf over his large frame as shelter from the rain. Now the point is made of this scene: Miyazaki creates the stillness, realism and seemingly mundane moment to introduce Totoro as a creature of simple pleasures, despite his fantastic nature.



Satsuki offers Totoro an extra umbrella she had brought for her father. Totoro accepts this gift, but is unsure of how to use it. Satsuki demonstrates. Totoro tries himself. He grins. Rain from above bounces off the umbrella. Totoro's grin slowly evolves into a delightful smile (complete with the Japanimation tradition of eyes growing as big as a cavern) as he is fascinated with the sounds that emerge from above him. His grin grows – it is obvious that a lightbulb has gone off in his head. Totoro leaps, and his gargantuan weight brings down the power of all the raindrops attached to the leaves from the tree above as it crashes down on top of the umbrella. In return for the gift of this newfound and overwhelmingly pleasing sensory overload, Totoro gives Setsuki a bundle of nuts and seeds. At that moment, a bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop (one of the ultimate "WTF?!" moments I've had since falling in love with film), and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella. Shortly after, their father's bus arrives. What happens with the seeds is for those who have never seen the film to discover, but I've always felt that Miyazaki must have been terribly inspired by E.T. taking Elliot to the moon.

Kazuo Oga was the art director of My Neighbor Totoro and is just as integral to the film as Miyazaki. Oga and Miyazaki debated the palette of the film, Oga seeking to paint black soil from Akita Prefecture and Miyazaki preferring the color of red soil from the Kantō region. The ultimate product was described by Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, "It was nature painted with translucent colors. The film winds up creating a believable, tangible world full of supernatural beings. The soot spirits would appear again in Spirited Away under more extraordinary circumstances, but looked quite believable in Totoro, for example. Oga's work here led to his continued involvement with Studio Ghibli. The studio assigned jobs to Oga that would play to his strengths, and Oga's style became a trademark style of the studio.



I understand that my praise for this film may fall on deaf ears for the key demographic here at 411. I understand that angst, cynicism, nihilism and "trolling" all in the name of non-conformity is the norm and I'm fine with that. Hell, I used to be engaged in the same way. I know that a film like Totoro would be deemed "boring" and "too syrupy" for some. Not all film is made for everyone - Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli definitely had their base audience in mind – but there is something universally appealing about My Neighbour Totoro that continues to resonate with those who encounter it. I know it isn't "dark" or "brooding" or have bloodshed, twists and turns, "shades of gray", gratuitous (hey, Kristophowiz!) wit and banter or a snide, tongue-in-cheek view of contemporary life.

The thing is, as one gets older and begins to drink in the world around them, it is apparent that the weight of constant cynicism is heavy. It isn't healthy to be so serious all the time, nor is it productive to feel like you have all the answers and the rest of the world doesn't "get it". Sometimes, the simplest moments of life and existence are the ones that teach us more about who we are than any major conflict ever can. Joy can be found in the pleasures of simply sitting in the sun, or taking in the foam of a cold glass of root beer. I know that the world I live in isn't perfect, and tragedy and injustice surrounds me at every corner – but I know that if it was possible, I'd like to live in a world where Totoro inhabits it. Just to give him my umbrella.

Then I would introduce him to Pooh-Bear and observe as he takes his first taste of honey.



Trailer for My Neighbor Totoro


{Film Passport Stamped]

Coming Attractions: In my opinion, the most overlooked film of 2009 - the one that should have been nominated for a Best Animated Feature and further proof that sometimes Western audiences are still ignorant and oblivious to movies from other countries.

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