8/20/2019 My Neighbor Totoro -- Movie Synopsis
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My Neighbor Totoro
Movie Synopsis
My Neighbor Totoro (Japanese: Tonari no Totoro?) is a
1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and
directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli it
tells the story of the two young daughters (Satsuk
and Mei) of a professor and their interactions with friendly
wood spirits
In 1958 Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two
daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move into an oldhouse to be closer to
the hospital where their mother Yasuko is recovering from a
long-term illness. Satsuki andMei find that the house is inhabited
by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari – small, dark,
dust-like
house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When
the girls become comfortable in their new
house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits leave the
house to drift away on the wind. It is implied that they
are going to find another empty house – their natural
habitat.
One day, Mei sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass and
follows the ears under the house. She discoverstwo small magical
creatures who lead her through a briar patch and into the hollow of
a large camphor tree. She
meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit,
which identifies itself by a series of roars that she
interprets as "Totoro". She falls asleep atop the large totoro,
but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground in a
dense briar clearing. Despite her many attempts, Mei is unable
to show her family Totoro's tree. Her fathercomforts her by telling
her that this is the "keeper of the forest," and that Totoro will
reveal himself when he
wants to.
One rainy night, the girls are waiting for their father's bus
and grow worried when he does not arrive on the bus
they expect him on. As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on
Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them,
allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. He only has a
leaf on his head for protection against the rain, soSatsuki offers
him the umbrella she had taken along for her father. Totoro is
delighted at both the shelter and the
sounds made upon it by falling raindrops. In return, he gives
her a bundle of nuts and seeds. A bus-shaped giant
cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the
umbrella. Shortly after, their father's bus arrives.
The girls plant the seeds. A few days later, they awaken at
midnight to find Totoro and his two miniaturecolleagues engaged in
a ceremonial dance around the planted nuts and seeds. The girls
join in, whereupon the
seeds sprout, and then grow and combine into an enormous tree.
Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a
ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone,
but the seeds have indeed sprouted.
The girls find out that a planned visit by Yasuko has to be
postponed because of a setback in her treatment.
Satsuki, disappointed and worried, tells Mei the bad news, which
Mei does not take well. This leads into an
argument between the two, ending in Satuski angrily yelling at
Mei and stomping off. Mei decides to walk to thehospital to bring
some fresh corn to her mother.
Mei's disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search
for her. Eventually, Satsuki returns in
desperation to the camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help.
Delighted to be of assistance, he summons theCatbus, which carries
her to where the lost Mei sits. Having rescued her, the Catbus then
whisks her and Satsukiover the countryside to see their mother in
the hospital. The girls perch in a tree outside of the
hospital,
overhearing a conversation between their parents and discovering
that she has been kept in hospital by a minor
cold and is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of
corn on the windowsill, where it is discovered by
the parents, and return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus
departs, it disappears from the girls' sight.
In the end credits, Mei and Satsuki's mother returns home, and
the sisters play with other children, with Totoroand his friends as
unseen observers.
***
