MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS HOW TO
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS MOVIE

The girls receive a telegram from their motherвЂ™s hospital doctor вЂ“ вЂњCall me.вЂќ They never find out why, because Mei knows it must be bad. To him, the magic in a situation no more complicated than a child worried for her parent is in nothing but her feeling. Or maybe it has little to do with a divide in nations at all, and everything to do with the mind of Miyazaki. American children want to be convinced to believe in magic Satsuki and Mei just want to enjoy it. The train of вЂњlook at meвЂќ reactionary dialogue and вЂњobservationsвЂќ permeates the film when in MiyazakiвЂ™s version there is so much more time for being quiet.ДЄre American children munchier, leaving no scenery unchewed? Are we too fast-moving and progress-obsessed to appreciate lonely roads, well-earned silences, weaves of untended grass? Japan has someone managed to be the most technologically advanced country in the world while retaining its status as one of the most meditative. As the dubbed American dialogue betrays natureвЂ™s solemn revelations, it also deeply betrays Miyazaki. Waving grass can become desolate and sad. Miyazaki has this quietude of funniness, in eyeballs and little bristles.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS HOW TO

They teach him how to use an umbrella and he gets amused by letting raindrops hit his tall ears. ItвЂ™s both ethereal and charming when he lumbers in out of the rain and stands by them at the bus stop. Notice that he can still be funny, sometimes very slowly. The forest king is not above slapstick, but he will never let it tarnish his mystique. He will never play Totoro for irony even if he burped, it would be as an animal burps. Miyazaki has bizarre fun with images without ever compromising their self-assurance. So the children Satsuki and Mei play with the Totoros at a distance, flying with them on a spinning top powered by breezes and playing the movieвЂ™s theme on pan-flutes. The voices, refined in terms of acting, fill every quiet space with вЂњreactions.вЂќ The subtitles, which are transcriptions of the Japanese dialogue, will speak much less and say much more. For a direct comparison, watch the English-dubbed Totoro with the subtitles on. Just wait until you need him (which of course will be right after you find him). He tells them that the king of the forest canвЂ™t be expected to show up all the time.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO CHARACTERS MOVIE

CanвЂ™t you imagine the American movie parent saying, вЂњOh, you kids with your imaginations,вЂќ or worse and wearier, вЂњHavenвЂ™t I told you not to lie?вЂќ Instead, MiyazakiвЂ™s dad character talks to his girls with reassuring ambiguity (magic requires this contradiction since you will never find proof that it exists but must believe that it does). Magic is what children believe may come of the world from a little kindness or adventure: a hole in a tree where a great plush Totoro lives beneath a canopy, which disappears when you try to show your dad. This is perhaps because of the way the film treats magic, not that itвЂ™s real, but that it doesnвЂ™t have to be. But for good reason, only TotoroВ has become the Ghibli company logo. You can see this in Nausicaa, Spirited Away, Mononoke. IвЂ™ll sum it up this way: according to Miyazaki, we should protect natureвЂ™s body so that it can protect our spirit. As opposed to Princess Mononoke, in which the diatribe of not burning forests to build factories is a heavy thematic burden, TotoroВ takes a gentler approach. In MiyazakiвЂ™s Japan, this magic seems part of the environment, which permeates all his work. Like childhood, the film involves a lot of running around and laughing and getting grass stains in exotic places. The climax of TotoroВ doesnвЂ™t involve the Volvo-sized hamster of the title, nor does it directly impact a sick mother who can only be cured by magic вЂ“ it involves only a five-year-old girl who is lost and scared because she thinks that she can. This is the fear of a world over which you have no control, which four feet from the ground seems as likely influenced by science as by spirits, by medicine as by magic acorns. What is not so easy вЂ“ and why MiyazakiвЂ™s brood is special вЂ“ is depicting the other parts of childhood, which parents hope do not exist as children hope of evil spirits that disappear so long as you donвЂ™t look. But this is all somewhat easy, especially for a parent, who can easily picture their dumplings having a good time in the backyard world made especially for them. Even the bullies let you borrow their umbrella if itвЂ™s raining (though donвЂ™t expect them to be happy about it). TheyвЂ™re always tripping and smiling and cackling at icky things. They are sweet and playful, with hammy thighs and pudgy grins. Hayao Miyazaki excels at depicting children, never so much as in My Neighbor Totoro.

My neighbor totoro characters