The notions that animated content has to be vibrant, with music and OTT are all shattered, and now I am a man who can emotionally invest in this genre too. I am thankful that I discovered studio Ghibli in time. It was made three decades ago but will be relevant forever. There is a lot to unravel layer by layer in the Hayao Miyazaki’s written and directed film. This is a hope we deserve in the testing times and Totoro gives us just that. Maybe Totoro is just Mei & Satsuki’s imagination, but it has hope. Surrender yourself to My Neighbor Totoro and let it tell how carefree and innocent the world was when we were as adolescents. Totoro could also be Mei and Satsuki’s imagination but it still comforts them and fills a void, so it does for its viewer too. Hayao Miyazaki’s film adds the perfect amount of magic in the real world, making it palpable. There is flying, magically growing trees, secret doorways, kids running around but all of this has a message, and you need to find out your perspective about it. Though made for kids, which it is and in the most simplistic way, and there is a lot for them, but the messaging is strong and deserves the attention of the adults. How beautifully it subtracts evoking the incorrect emotion in kids of acting terrified when they see something unconventional. The world created is simple, Totoro doesn’t have to convince the girls that it is good contradictory to his questionable appearance. It does not have a gender, but instincts are pure. Totoro protects the girls, helps them when needed. She falls on its gigantic belly and dozes off to sleep in no time like one would in a mother’s lap. But to define its warmth, he makes him enter the screen with Mei. It’s a giant owl-like looking creature that looks scary initially but has a heart of gold. Mayazaki creates a motherly figure in the most unthought-of unrealistic thing. The conflict here is the absence of a mother. Animated films, or let’s broaden the horizon, children films are all about a bad guy wanting to destroy things and a protagonist defeating him. What stands out in the film is a missing antagonist. The dream of flying in the night, discovering someone that only belongs to us, and running around without anything to bother.
My Neighbor Totoro takes you on a ride of the thoughts each one of us had at the bedtime as a child. Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki finds the right spot to balance the strongest between realism and magic. Amid this are Mei and her elder sister Satsuki who are missing their hospitalised mother.