My Neighbor Totoro [VHS]

My Neighbor Totoro [VHS]
by Hayao Miyazaki

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Category: VHS Video
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Chika Sakamoto, Hitoshi Takagi, Noriko Hidaka, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Cinematographer: Mark Henley
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Producer: Eiko Tanaka
Producer: Ned Lott
Producer: Rick Dempsey
Producer: Tohru Hara
Producer: Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Analog; English (Dubbed)
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 86 minutes
Release Date: 1996-03-05
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Studio: 20th Century Fox

VHS Movie Reviews of My Neighbor Totoro [VHS]

Movie Review: MUST HAVE =BOTH= FOX & DISNEY VERSIONS
Summary: 4 Stars

First a thought or two about this great story. We all here (almost all) agree that this animated story is uniquely magical and special. The most unique characteristic in my view is the realistic behaviors of the characters; especially those of the children. They think, behave, and interact just as real children do. It's this realistic side of the story in my view that draws us in and won't let us forget it. Rather than just a fantastical tale that's a great escape from reality and then forgotten, we can relate our lives to this story; at any age. Recalling our youth and our own once brilliant imaginations, remembering when anything and everything around us could have something magical and exciting about it. And the ways in which the girls "discover" and bring the whimsical, mysterious, and delightfully (even startlingly) unfamiliar creatures into the story is also very natural and true to the workings of a child's imagination. Children don't develop the characters they imagine ahead of time, planning entire coherent storylines. They're spontaneous and their characters fit into their imagined World of the moment. Everything doesn't have to make perfect sense because their World can change to make it all work out. This is how we see the story; from a child's imagination, to which we all can relate. It's as if we're right there, children again, imagining it right along with them.

We originally had the Fox version. When Disney released theirs, we bought it and gave the Fox version away; and regret it. Yes, Disney's has lots of great extras, the Japanese language track, and a display ratio that allows a full view ("letterbox"). All "must haves". But what we miss about the Fox version is the voice casting. Fox chose voice personalities that perfectly fit the characters. They just felt natural and right, and you never felt "aware" that they're voice-overs. Not so in Disney's case. Dakota Fanning has a very strong, distinctive, unshakably confident, and amazingly adult-like personality. Great for her, but SO WRONG for Satsuki! Satsuki is a much more gentle, modest, and youthful girl who sort of finds her inner strengths as the story progresses. So you're VERY aware it's a voice-over, of the conflict in personalities, and that it's Dakota Fanning talking; which takes you out of the story and puts you back on your couch watching a cartoon. Kills the magic I described above.

So you have to have Fox's for the pleasure of losing yourself in the story, and Disney's for all the great extras. (I'd give 1000 Stars for the story, but 4 Stars for either of these releases - they could do better) I don't know if you can find either now ( I wish I could find Fox's ), but if you can, don't hesitate. There's nothing like Totoro.

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Summary of My Neighbor Totoro [VHS]

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

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