"My Neighbor Totoro" is an animated film by the famous Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. It was filmed 30 years ago, in 1988, but remains popular to this day. High-quality animation, pleasant style, interesting characters, an exciting plot and a wonderful soundtrack made Totoro and the cartoon about him a favorite fairy tale of millions of children and adults. He’s still sometimes shown in movies on the big screen, and the famous shot, where the main characters are standing in the rain, still pops up here and there on the Internet and social networks, many movies and cartoons, series and comics were sent to him, and souvenirs from Totoro are still on the shelves. The rating of the cartoon on Kinopoisk is 8.2.
History of creation
Initially, the story of Totoro was supposed to come out in the form of a picture book. The plot was considered too boring for the video format. However, in 1988, two animated films by the Ghibli studio were released immediately on carriers in Japan: Grave of Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro. No one expected from the last success, it was believed that he would not interest the viewer. It was more like an experiment, and initially he did not make any furor. The fairy tale about a furry forest inhabitant found a second life and world fame after the release of plush toys in the form of the main character. In the 90s, Totoro went abroad and gained worldwide fame, Disney became the distributor, and the animal itself became the mascot and symbol of the Ghibli studio and flaunts on the company logo.
Soon, the cartoon became a cult, but in the history of its creation there is nothing special, at least Miyazaki did not note any hidden intentions, which gave rise to many different theories among fans. The director made a cartoon about the place in which he used to live - the city of Tokorodzawa, with some autobiographical elements. Once it was an agricultural zone, and later turned into a sleeping area, and Totoro is a symbol of forest and nature.
Soundtrack
The music for the cartoon was written by the Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, who also worked on many other works of the Ghibli studio. In 1988, the soundtrack was released in Japan, and in the 90s it spread in Russia in the form of pirated copies.
Recognizable melodies convey the purity and peace of Japanese nature and rural life, evoke bright associations with childhood and warm summer days, thanks to which viewers around the world have fallen in love.
Plot
The cartoon "My Neighbor Totoro" takes place in the 60s in the city of Tokorodzawa, Saitama Prefecture. Sisters May and Satsuki move with their father to the countryside and gradually learn the delights of village life, walk around the neighborhood, get used to the changes. Later they meet spirits, including the guardian of the local forests - Totoro. He introduces the sisters to the surrounding nature and gives magic seeds, from which a giant tree grows in one night.
The girls are playing with a new friend, but at some point, the upset May, the younger sister, quarrels and goes alone to the hospital to her seriously ill mother and gets lost. Satsuki, with the help of Totoro and other forest spirits, goes in search of the missing May. It is noteworthy that the forest inhabitants do not speak, but calmly communicate with the heroines without words.
Main characters
- Totoro is the guardian spirit of the forest. A large and fluffy charming beast that lives in more often and is surrounded by smaller spirits. In the story, Satsuki helps in the search for a younger sister. Totoro remotely resembles a fat cat or rabbit, walks on its hind legs. Despite its size, it is very agile and agile.
- Satsuki, the eldest of the sisters, goes to high school, takes care of May, watches the house in the absence of her mother.
- May is a five-year-old girl, Satsuki's younger sister. He goes to kindergarten. Restless and a little moody. The first meets Totoro.
Cartoon nature
In the anime about Totoro, the forest plays a very important role and is almost a separate character in the story. The nature of the countryside of Japan is depicted with love and trepidation, even somewhat idealized. And Totoro in the cartoon appears as a symbol of the connection of the main characters with the forest, their guide to the world of wildlife.
The cartoon "My Neighbor Totoro" was released in 1988, but was developed and designed for 15 years during the industrialization of Japan. Deforestation took place for the sake of industrial progress, and sleeping areas were built from villages. The portrayal of nature in "My Neighbor Totoro" is an echo of the sad realization that there will soon be little left of the beautiful nature of the land of the Rising Sun, nostalgia for green areas and times when children played in the fresh air.
Who is Totoro
Hayao Miyazaki is fully responsible for the appearance of this character. According to the creator, Totoro is not a ghost or a deity, but rather a forest animal with magical abilities or spirit. It combines the features of an owl, cat, rabbit and raccoon. Has the ability to quickly grow trees, so he is engaged in caring for the forest. He is very kind to him and zealously protects him.
Strictly speaking, Totoro is not the name of the particular large animal May and Satsuki play with, it is rather the name of the species of rabbit-like creatures of different sizes that fill the forest, and the most important of them is the largest, the only one of such sizes.
By the way, the name of the character is the warped word "troll", a fairy tale about which the girls read.
Other perfumes and fairy-tale characters
The cartoon mythology does not end there alone. Director Hayao Miyazaki has developed his own fairytale background for the story, and the main characters meet other amazing inhabitants of the forest.
- Susuvatari (from the Japanese "walking soot").
In another way, they are called zoloviki or black ringlets. These are small shy funny round black creatures that live in flocks in the shadows, hide from human eyes and sunlight, live in abandoned buildings. May and Satsuki meet them in the attic of a new home.
Susuvatari appears not only in Totoro, but also in another famous Miyazaki cartoon - Spirited Away.
A huge cat bus with many paws, a wide smile, luminous eyes and a bulletin board. It moves with great speed and is not visible to most people. A wide muzzle, a striped color and a bewitching smile were borrowed from another character - the Cheshire cat from the cartoon of the Disney studio - “Alice in Wonderland”.
Hidden meaning and theory
On the Internet, hypotheses about the hidden meaning, which cannot be distinguished at first glance, are popular among viewers. Such theories exist for many films and cartoons, including the Ghibli studio, and Totoro is no exception.
First of all, lovers of hidden meanings refer to the "Sayama incident", which occurred on May 1, 1963 in the city of Sayama, which is not far from Tokorozawa. Allegedly, Miyazaki interpreted this story in his cartoon. On this day, a 16-year-old schoolgirl disappeared, and after 3 days she was found raped and killed. The victim's sister complained of stress hallucinations. She talked about monsters that resembled a big raccoon and a cat.
However, the director's place was chosen because he once lived there, time - because this is the period of the beginning of industrialization in Japan, and the children then played in the fresh air, in the untouched forests. Frightening hallucinations, reminiscent of Totoro and Cotobus, are just a coincidence, since Japanese mythology is full of stories about animal-like spirits, and the girl’s mind simply reproduced images from folklore.
Also popular is the version that the sisters die during the cartoon and meet Totoro already dead or close to death. As evidence, the fact that Totoro, Susuvatari and Kotobus are spirits is mentioned, and only those who are in the next world or close to it can see spirits. Also, the audience is interested in the fact that the girls, being near the hospital, did not go to the mother, but watched from the window, and the seriously ill mother felt their presence, since she was close to death.
All these arguments are broken about the fact that after the story of May’s disappearance, the girls calmly communicate with their completely lively father and neighbors, and the mother does not die, but recovers and returns home.