My Neighbor Totoro is one of Hayao Miyazaki’s earlier animated works. The atmosphere and tone of the movie are similar to other works around the time like Kiki’s Delivery Service. Notably though, it is set in a much less fantastic world than his previous major works. It is a cult favorite to followers of the director, and one of his first really big hits. At first glance, the movie holds a feeling of cheerfulness that is reminiscent of early childhood. This matches the ages of the main characters, Satsuki and Mei, who have recently moved to a house in the countryside with their father, Tatsuo. While the music and bright palette of the movie give an adolescent mood to My Neighbor Totoro, mature themes run throughout the story. Through the two young girls exploration of their new house and the surrounding area, Miyazaki examines the relationship between childish imagination and emotional pains.
The story begins with an overflowing truck. This blue truck bumbles its way along the road, burdened with a mountain of things strapped to its bed. Tatsuo Kusakabe is moving to the countryside with his two daughters. We are never explicitly given a reason for this move, but later we may intuit one. The house that they arrive to is run down. The wood is rotting, dust covers every inch, and it is generally in disarray. In these early house scenes, the first supernatural element is introduced. Mei and Satsuki open a door to find a completely black room. The blackness vanished in a flurry of movement. Mei and Satsuki come across this instance of vanishing blackness several times throughout the house. It is explained to them as soot gremlins. Creatures that live in old houses and watch over them. This explanation is offered to them twice, first by their father, and then by their elderly neighbor simply named Granny. Granny claims that “I used to be able to see them when I was your age”, and lets them know that they are friendly creatures. This first instance of supernatural is indicative of each fantastic thing in the movie. It comes from a need of the children. In this instance the girls, especially Mei, are depicted as nervous and frightened about certain aspects of the house. The idea of a haunted house is enough to scare any child. So it is easy to create a friendly little creature to explain darting movements seen out of the corner of an eye. This is not to say that the creatures aren’t real. Throughout the movie there is no conclusive evidence that the fantastic creatures are meant to be understood as purely a part of the children’s imagination or not. That argument doesn’t feel pertinent to the movie either, and this essay won’t look to address it. Rather, this essay will seek to show how the fantasy of the children is used to deal with the needs of their lives.
Beneath the Charm
My Neighbor Totoro is known for being adorable. The fuzzy and lovable creature that Mei will discover is perhaps the most fitting thing ever imagined for a plushy toy. Cuteness seeps from the screen, as Mei and Satsuki’s antics and the upbeat music force smiles out of rocks. Like many of Miyazaki’s films though, there is a very real conflict at the heart of the story. This is no less true in My Neighbor Totoro, and when contrasted with the jubilant feeling of the art, it feels even more somber than usual. When the viewer learns that Mei and Satsuki’s Mom is in the hospital, the story takes a serious turn. The movie doesn’t suddenly become a drama focused on her illness, but her sickness and its impact become more and more obvious as time goes on. There are several clues that show that the situation of the children isn’t as happy as the cult ivated atmosphere would have you believe. First, the nature of the house suddenly becomes suspect. Questions about why they have moved become more pressing. Now, it is possible that they moved to the countryside to be closer to the hospital that their mother is residing in. But, as Granny explains later, it is a four hour walk to the hospital, so it’s not exactly close. Furthermore, the house they move into is extremely dilapidated. These both indicate that their financial situation might be strained by the expenses of a lengthy stay in a hospital. Regardless of whether their finances are stressed, Tatsuo’s time is definitely overloaded. This subtle hints of these burdens are expertly shown in a shot of Tatsuo and Mei. The shot takes place on a morning when Tatsuo overslept. Because he woke up late, he wasn’t able to make lunch for Satsuki who is going off to school. Satsuki has already made lunch for herself and the rest of the family though. Mei, who is too young for school, is left with her father while Satsuki takes off. Miyazaki establishes a shot of Tatsuo’s study in the house. The room is cluttered with an obscene amount of books and paper. Tatsuo leans over a desk, focused on what he is writing. The back wall of the room is open and Mei plays in the grass just outside. The frame of the shot does not change for a long time. While Tatsuo is bent over his desk, the frame holds tight and he never changes places. Meanwhile, Mei dips in and out of the frame, running and playing, shouting to her dad, and displaying the energy of youth. This shot displays the lacking parent figure in the daughter’s life. While Mei looks to explore and run outside of the frame, her father is petrified by his work. These subtle details show the reality of their lives. Many small moments are impacted by their sick mother. These realities are unavoidable, and issues that the children must deal with.
It is exactly these real problems that lead to the fantastic in this movie. Immediately after the previous scene, Mei goes on an adventure around the house that leads her to discovering Totoro. In this way, the fantastic answers the needs that the real imposes onto the children. When her father must work, Mei is entertained by chasing fantastic creatures around the house and in the backyard. Totoro’s second appearance only comes when Mei and Satsuki are missing their father. As they wait in the rain at a bus stop for Tatsuo, who has missed a connection on his commute from work, Totoro appears again. He delights the girls who have grown tired, and in this ways supports them while there father is gone. Totoro’s final appearance comes at the climax of the movie, when Mei has disappeared after running off to try and see her mother at the hospital. Totoro appears again to help Satsuki find Mei. Here, the ambiguity of Totoro’s actually existence is preeminent. While nobody except for Satsuki and Mei have seen it, Totoro has the real world impact of helping Satsuki find Mei. Regardless of how real he is, the pattern of the fantastic arriving to fill the needs of the real, especially in situations where the children have no parents, is definitive. Miyazaki’s work shows how childhood imagination helps us cope with very real and mature problems. It also does not judge this way of dealing with the problems. Mei and Satsuki are not harmed by this imagination; rather they are supported by it. My Neighbor Totoro show how children are sometimes faced with very difficult problems and yet manage to find happiness in their situation, with the help of the fantastic.
Eric's Words 