Exploring Film in the Primary Classroom Using Anime - · PDF fileMade by the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli and directed by the celebrated Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbour Totoro

My Neighbour Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki, 86mins, Japan, 1988

Exploring Film in the Primary Classroom Using Anime:

My Neighbour Totoro

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EXPLORING FILM IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM USING ANIME

Primary students are particularly enthusiastic viewers of animation and respond to the alternative worlds

created within animation texts and the distinctive and stylised characters. When we are presenting

programs at ACMI, we are very familiar with the ripple of recognition that runs through the audience at the

sight of Pingu or Mr Incredible or Jack Skellington…and this ripple becomes a tidal wave of enthusiasm if

Bart Simpson is brought into the mix. The pleasure and interest students reveal in relation to animation is

something that should be respected and worked with; children are discerning viewers and the texts that

capture their interest only do so because they offer a well-told story and memorable characters.

At ACMI, as well as drawing on students’ pre-existing film knowledge – and this is an important aspect of

any kind of literacy education – we encourage students to explore new and different forms and genres, to

recognise the infinite ways that stories can be told and the breadth of the visual language used in moving

image texts. We have introduced a number of students to anime (Japanese animated films). These films

draw on students’ delight in animation but also offer many of them new ways of imagining the world and

new ways of thinking about the language of film and animation.

In this short piece, I am going to suggest ways that primary teachers can use the film My Neighbour Totoro

to teach techniques of reading and understanding film texts.

Made by the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli and directed by the celebrated Hayao Miyazaki, My

Neighbour Totoro is a charming film that deals with themes such as family, nature and the environment

and community. The story is simple but strange and unexpected and the visual narrative is extraordinary.

My Neighbour Totoro tells the story of two sisters who move to the country with their father, to be closer to

their mother who is in hospital. The girls make friends with Totoro who is a spirit of the forest. Director and

creator Miyazaki has said that he made the film so that children from the city could imagine what it would

be like to live in the country. However, the countryside that the two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, are introduced

to is a fantasy countryside, depicted in jewel-like colours and untouched by modernity. Miyazaki uses the

familiar trope of absent parents to open the way for the children’s adventure but also presents the

relationship between the girls and their hardworking father and sick mother as loving and intimate.

This text delights early years students and can be used to introduce students from Years Prep to 2 to ideas

about animation, character and storytelling. Year 3 and 4 students will be able to appreciate the subtleties

of the text and respond in a more sophisticated way to the artistry and themes explored. They can also be

challenged to think about the difference between the narrative of My Neighbour Totoro and the feature

animations made in Hollywood. The suggestions below can be adapted and selected from depending on the

Year level being taught.


INTRODUCING THE FILM

Younger students are more likely to enjoy and respond to a film if they have been given some context and have some ideas about what to look out for. Show students some still images of key moments from the film and draw them out using the learning routine ‘See Think Wonder’. pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html

Still images can be captured from a DVD using VLC media, a free downloadable media player.

a. The family travelling though the countryside to their new home. What do you see in this image?

What do you think about that?

What does it make you wonder?

b. An image that introduces the film’s magical element.

What do you see in this image?

What do you think about that?

What does it make you wonder?

As well as stimulating the students’ curiosity about the film, it is likely that this activity will encourage students to begin thinking a bit about the art design and you can revisit this after they have watched the film.


AFTER VIEWING THE FILM

After students have seen a film, it is always good to give them a chance to offer their immediate response.

Ask students for a single word response. Make a list. Which scenes stood out? What made them stand out? Why were they special?

What colours are used in the film?

Explore some of the details that might have been a bit confusing. Ask students:

What do you think of Totoro? What do you think he is? What are some of the things he does in the story?

Why do you think the family has moved to the country?

Do you think Satsuki and Mei’s mother has been sick for very long? Why do you think this? What were the soot sprites doing in the house when the girls first arrived there?

When does the Catbus appear in the story? What is its role in the story?

A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ABOUT THE NARRATIVE

Satsuki and Mei, the sisters in My Neighbour Totoro, are very independent and spend a lot of time on their own.

What other stories do you know where the children are free to have adventures because of the adults in their life are absent?

Why are there so many children’s stories where this happens? How would it have changed the story if the children’s father had met Totoro?

In My Neighbour Totoro we get to see a lot of the things that the family does as part of everyday life.

What are some of these everyday routines? Are they the same kinds of things that you do each day in your home?

What are some of the unexpected things that happen to Mei and Satsuki in My Neighbour Totoro?

How do the girls respond to these events? Why do you think they respond like this?

CHARACTERS

Give each student a card with a character from the film on it. (You can capture each character’s image using the snapshot function of VLC media. Then, format them to consistent size and laminate them.) Include one card for even the most minor characters but more than one for the major characters.

Ask each student to report back to the class about:

the ‘look’ or design of this character (eyes, hair, body shape and size, colouring, clothing) the way the character behaves the character’s contribution to the story

how important this character is (minor or major character)in the story


A BIT MORE ABOUT MEI AND SATSUKI What do the students think about each of these characters?

o Ask the class to contribute single words or short phrases to describe their impression of the girls.

o Once you have listed these, ask students to name a scene where this quality or attribute is displayed.

WHAT ABOUT TOTORO? While it is the big Totoro that makes such an impression, we meet three Totoros in the story.

o Ask students to create a storyboard detailing Mei’s meeting with the three Totoros. (Find worksheet 1 – Storyboard, at the end of this resource.)

o How do we learn that these creatures have a special connection to nature?

In My Neighbour Totoro, we see soot sprites that inhabit houses and woodland sprites that live in the forest. Ask students to imagine a new, special place and draw the magical creatures that might live there.

RELATIONSHIPS

My Neighbour Totoro is much more about connections between people and between people and nature than it is about events and action. This idea is explored through the two sisters.

Does anything happen in My Neighbour Totoro that does not include either or both Mei or Satsuki? o Nothing does, but you can work this out together as a class and this will help students to

become more familiar with the film. o At first it seems that the girls are absent from the scene where the mother and father talk

together in the hospital, but then we are drawn back (as if a camera is zooming out) and we see that the girls are part of this scene as well.

Once you have worked out how central the girls are to the story, hand out a worksheet with the girls at the centre and ask the students to write or draw all the people and creatures the girls meet in the story. (The worksheet is provided at the end of the resource.)

The special connection in My Neighbour Totoro is, of course, between the sisters and Totoro. o When do the girls meet up with Totoro? o Where? o What happens when they meet him?


EXAMINING THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING OF A FILM NARATIVE

The beginning of a film is called the opening sequence. It sets up the story and introduces the main characters.

What do we learn in the opening minutes of the film? Why do stories and film narratives often begin with characters travelling to a different place? The girls travel home in quite a different way in the closing sequence of the film. Ask students to

compare the two ‘vehicles’ (the 3 wheel truck and the Catbus).

We know how much Satsuki and Mei’s parents care about them. By the end of the film, who else cares about them and watches over them?

o The best films give us room to imagine what might happen to the characters afterwards. What kinds of adventure might Satsuki and Mei have?

o Ask students to write about or draw the next part of the story.

THINKING ABOUT VISUAL LANGUAGE

Explore cel animation with your students. o A lot of students have made flipbooks, so already have a bit of an idea about how

animation works. However, if they haven’t done this, it might be worth bringing in a flipbook to show them how cel animation works. (Post-it notes can be used to create flipbooks.)

o As well as understanding the way movement is created in animation, students are always captivated by the relationship between the cel and the background. If you can access a cel from My Neighbour Totoro (like this one below) and then locate the scene in which it is used, the animation process is made much clearer.

o Ask students to draw the background for a scene in an animation. Give them some ideas: moonlit night, forest, front garden of a house, a bedroom. Encourage them to use similar colours to those used in My Neighbour Totoro. They can then draw a character, cut it out and place it on top of the scene.


o An even more exciting idea is to find an overhead projector and, using transparency

markers, create a background on one transparency sheet and a character on another. Project them on a screen for everyone to see. Even better: if you can find some of the long transparency sheets that can be wound through, you can make the background move behind the character to give the illusion of movement. This is the opposite of the cel animation effect, but is a fun activity and highlights the relationship between character and setting.

Students can imagine they are concept artists – the people who come up with the visual ideas for an animation or film. Ask them to choose from a list of possible characters (woodland spirit, lost child, strange old lady) and create their own memorable design.

o The Art of My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki and Nobuhiro Watsuki is filled with examples of the concept art created for the film.

THE CINEMATIC STYLE OF HAYAO MIYAZAKI

The arrival of the Catbus is the most celebrated sequence in My Neighbour Totoro. In this sequence, Miyazaki uses a number of the conventions we associate with live film, while also celebrating animation’s capacity to immerse us in the world of the imagination.

Use the Catbus sequence to explore how Miyazaki mimics the live film technique of using different camera angles and shots to create a mood and to tell a story.

o Capture some still images from this sequence to give the students an understanding of the way that Miyazaki draws us into the story using different ‘shots’.

o Begin with the ‘wide shot’ of the two girls, small and vulnerable, in the light of the street light. Ask the students for words that describe the way the girls look in this image.


o Use stills to look at a series of different angles. I like to use the gradual ‘revelation’ of Totoro. For older students, this is also a great way to introduce the idea of the subjective shot where we viewers see what a particular character sees. Note also the use of sound in this sequence.

o Now run the whole sequence and, as a class, note each time there is a change to the ‘shot’. (You will need to use the remote.)

Ask students to take the concept character they created and draw it from a different perspective. Younger students could try the close up or the wide shot (where the character would be very small); older students can be much more imaginative.

o A challenge for older students could be to try a subjective shot like the one of Totoro under the umbrella.

Author’s Note: Susan Bye is an education programmer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. As part of our Education Week activities, ACMI will be offering a free screening of the Studio Ghibli anime film Castle in the Sky (Wednesday 23 May). This screening will be preceded by a short introduction exploring aspects of the film. To find out about this event and the rest of our free Education Week program, please visit: http://www.acmi.net.au/education.htm


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Exploring Film in the Primary Classroom Using Anime - · PDF fileMade by the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli and directed by the celebrated Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbour Totoro