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Movies / On DVD / My Neighbor Totoro
My Neighbor Totoro

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My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

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88 %
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Reviews Counted:24

Fresh:21

Rotten:3

Average Rating:8/10

Runtime: 87 mins

Genre: Childrens

Synopsis: Departing from the action-oriented plots of his previous films (NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and LAPUTA, CASTLE IN THE SKY), Japan's most beloved animator, Hayao Miyazaki, provides a... Departing from the action-oriented plots of his previous films (NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and LAPUTA, CASTLE IN THE SKY), Japan's most beloved animator, Hayao Miyazaki, provides a slower-paced, stunningly realistic portrayal of life in the countryside. When their mother is hospitalized because of an unspecified illness, two young sisters spend a summer in the Japanese countryside with their father. The children's strange new environment turns out to be a natural wonderland filled with exotic real-life creatures and a trio of furry, woodland sprites who can only be seen by children. The film evokes both the terrors and wonders that children can experience unbeknownst to adults--a feeling the young Miyazaki knew only too well after his mother was hospitalized because of spinal tuberculosis. With homages to ALICE IN WONDERLAND and MARY POPPINS, the second film from Studio Ghibli delighted audiences and put the young animation studio on firm financial footing. [More]

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

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Release:

Dec 3, 2002

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for My Neighbor Totoro

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Miyazaki is a genius.

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

The painted backgrounds are lush, realistic, and full of luxuriant foliage. The character animation, while stiff by Disney standards, is appropriate to the characters and expressive enough to bring them to life for the audience.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
09/01/08
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Obviously aimed at an international audience, the film evinces a disorienting combination of cultures that produces a nowhere land more confused than fascinating.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 6 Comments
09/01/08
Leonard Klady
Leonard Klady
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

what Miyazaki has animated is an idyll, that most melancholic and nostalgic of genres, where landscapes vanish, innocence is lost and death is as much a part of nature as life.

Full Review Source: Eye for Film | comment 1 Comment
08/02/07
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Eye for Film

The lack of sentimentality will be utterly refreshing to those raised on a diet of Disney.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/19/07
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out

How can I describe its inexplicable power? It is like how childhood memories feel, if you had a happy childhood — wide-eyed and blissful, matter-of-factly magical and entrancingly prosaic…

Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | comment Comment
08/09/06
Steven D. Greydanus
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide

A real contender for the greatest animated family film ever made.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The beauty of My Neighbor Totoro is its simplicity. It's a warm and friendly story that just made me feel good after watching it.

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
03/11/06
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

No review available.

comment 1 Comment
08/15/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A little dated and a little immature when compared to later Miyazaki works, but that's not such a bad thing, really.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
03/24/05
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

A sensibilidade ao retratar os personagens, a magia do universo concebido por Miyazaki e a qualidade impecável da animação fazem deste filme um clássico instantâneo.

comment Comment
02/09/05
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

Too much of the film...is taken up with stiff, mechanical chitchat.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment 3 Comments
08/30/04
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Has such assured naturalism and incidental detail that it seems we are watching animated actors, not just cartoon characters

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
11/17/03
Shane Burridge
Shane Burridge
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Showcases Miyazaki's delightful iconography of spirits, demons, and wood sprites at its most gentle.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
10/15/03
Jurgen Fauth
Jurgen Fauth
About.com

No review available.

comment Comment
08/04/03
Ryan Cracknell
Ryan Cracknell
Movie Views

My Neighbor Totoro has a realistic and dramatic maturity and an ingenuous sensibility (many scenes inherit a child’s curious wonder). In contrast, there is fantasy, one, armed with Miyazaki’s strength as its author, imaginative and totally original

Full Review Source: Not Coming to a Theater Near You | comment Comment
04/10/03
Rumsey Taylor
Rumsey Taylor
Not Coming to a Theater Near You

A welcome antidote to the US cultural imperialism of countless inferior Disney sell-thru videos . . .

Full Review Source: Movie Gurus | comment Comment
02/26/03
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Movie Gurus

A classic children's film from the master of Japanese animation.

Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
02/25/03
Robert Roten
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope

Wonderfully entertaining animation.

comment Comment
02/07/03
Gerry Shamray
Gerry Shamray
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland

No review available.

comment Comment
10/14/02
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
 
 
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