My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
Special Screening - Doha Tribecca Film Festival 2012
Hayao Miyazaki / Feature Narrative / Japan / 1988 / 88 min / Unknown / BetaSP / In English / Arabic subtitles / N/A
Rated: General Audiences. Suitable for ages 4 and up.
Synopsis
Like every film by master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, this comparatively early film (it is the third of Miyazaki’s films for Studio Ghibli), ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ touchingly and humorously evokes a world of childhood imagination. What opens the door to the world of the tree spirit Totoro and the film’s other forest creatures is – as is often the case in Miyazaki’s films – something going wrong in a child’s life. Here, Satsuki and her troublesome younger sister Mei move to the country with their father to be close to their mother, who is in hospital recovering from a long illness. Left to their own devices, the girls discover the ‘totoros’, woodland spirits of changeable size, and the unforgettable ‘cat-bus’ – all invisible to adult eyes, but all ready to help the girls when their mother’s illness seems to be worsening.
About the Director
Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo in 1941. He directed his first feature film in 1979. His lengthy career in animation includes the films ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky’ (1986), ‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997) and ‘Spirited Away’ (2001), an international phenomenon that broke every Japanese box-office record, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and received an Oscar in 2003.
Credits
- Director
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Screenwriter
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Distributor
- Front Row Entertainment
- Cast
- Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tim Daly, Pat Carroll, Lea Salonga, Frank Welker, Paul Butcher, Sonya Issacs