My Neighbor Totoro is that rare delight, a family film that appeals to children and adults alike. While their mother is in the hospital, 10-year-old Satsuki and 4-year-old Mei move into an old-fashioned house in the country with their professor father. At the foot of an enormous camphor tree, Mei discovers the nest of King Totoro, a giant forest spirit who resembles an enormous bunny rabbit. Mei and Satsuki learn that Totoro makes the trees grow, and when he flies over the countryside or roars in his thunderous voice, the winds blow. Totoro becomes the protector of the two sisters, watching over them when they wait for their father, and carrying them over the forests on an enchanted journey. When the children worry about their mother, Totoro sends them to visit her via a Catbus, a magical, multilegged creature with a grin the Cheshire Cat might envy.

Unlike many cartoon children, Satsuki and Mei are neither smart-alecky nor cloyingly saccharine. They are credible kids: bright, energetic, silly, helpful, and occasionally impatient. Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki makes the viewer believe the two sisters love each other in a way no American feature has ever achieved. My Neighbor Totoro is enormously popular in Japan, and some of the character merchandise has begun to appear in America. The film has also inspired a Japanese environmental group to buy a Totoro Forest preserve in the Saitama Prefecture, where Miyazaki's film is set. --Charles Solomon

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great movie, terrible dub
Comment: The English language soundtrack for this movie is dull and uninspired. Even though I don't understand much Japanese, the movie is much more fun in the original with subtitles, because of the energy of the voices. It begins with the title: in Japanese it's "Tonari no Totoro," which is alliterative and poetic, where the English "My Neighbor Totoro" is literally faithful but utterly boring.

This seems to have been released in the US mainly for anime lovers and fans of the original. If the US distributor (Disney it appears) were to commission a "remake" of the dub, with a better translation, music, and voice talent, they could have a real "Finding Nemo" like hit on their hands.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic Miyazaki Hayao story
Comment: "My Neighbor Totoro" is one of those movies that you watch...and watch...and watch again. Miyazaki Hayao has once again opened the portals to imagination and given us a wonderful, heart-warming story that children and adults will find entertaining, if not thought provoking. If you've never watched a Miyazaki Hayao movie before, this is the one to start with!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Sucked
Comment: I love My Neighbor Totoro, but this one that disney put out really sucked, They changed the voices, took out a lot of lines, and just all around messed it up. i have the orginal tape that streamline put out back in the early 90's and have pretty much grown up with the movie and i love it. its just really hard to see everything that was good about the movie changed so much. It took always all that we love about the anime. All my friends who watched this dvd said the same thing.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A tradition passed on ...
Comment: I remember watching this movie when it frist came out and simply being at awe with it. No bad guys ... little girls and fuzzy monsters ... come one, how can that beat Akira? Well, it just does. It's been my favorite move for years and now it's my daughter's favorite movie too.

I think the thing that gets me the most is Myazaki's treatment of the parents. When the children tell them of ghosts and monsters, there's instant belief ... no pats on the head followed by "silly girls" ... the father plays along and encourages them with kindness and understanding ... awesome.

The artwork is not Disney and it's not Pixar or Dreamworks ... its just simply amazing and warm. makes you want to just jump into the movie and play along.

Get this movie for your kids, get this movie for yourself, you wont be disappointed.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Kind of Neighbor
Comment: I have never seen the movie before so can't judge what it was like in other releases. In the DVD I bought, I had widescreen, dialog in English and Japanese and two disks. One for the regular film and the other was the entire soundtrack with story boarded pictures. I found the dialog in English beautiful and well done. The picture and the care the film had in transferring it over into DVD was marvelous. A man and his two daughters move to the country in a new house while the mother is hospitalized. They meet two very nice neighbors but the girls become attached to forest spirits who seem to take care of them when their parents are unavailable. Beautiful moving story with lots of hope.

---