My Neighbor Totoro - Blu-ray + DVD

Absolutely loved this film! Super charming and a great watch as I was eating dinner :))Story isn't super sophisticated or anything, but it really does encapsulate child-like wonder.

We watched this as a family for movie night, and it was a beautiful experience. The movie is age-appropriate, heartwarming, and truly tugs at your emotions. My 7-year-old daughter was completely immersed — she ended up sobbing and deeply worried about the sick mother, which shows just how touching and relatable the story is.The whimsical elements with Totoro balanced out the heavier themes, making it a magical yet meaningful film for all ages. Highly recommend for families who enjoy heartfelt stories.

The film is simply great. The 'behind the scenes' special features in this edition were really great to watch. Since the film came out back in the 1980's, it is really nice to get a fresh perspective from the creator and his team.It is a simple, innocent story of a family during (allegedly) the 1950's in Japan. Mom is sick, and in essentially a quarantine/isolated hospital unit.Her husband and two daughters move out to the country to live near her while she recovers. The father is a professor at the local University, and very preoccupied with his studies and, quite obviously, his ill wife.The film is a fantastic story of the sisters discovery of their neighbor 'Totoro', a big furry awesome character that lives 'next door'.They have some great moments and some tremendous adventures. The true story is really about the daughters dealing with the uncertainty of their mothers condition, moving to a new town and dealing with a new school all the while discovering new friendships and dealing with hardship simultaneously. It does a great job of showing just how creative kids are, and also makes you think twice about your own inability to believe in the fantastic as an adult. It perfectly captures the transitional period between being an innocent child and the wonderful discovery of a world that is much more than you ever imagined.The english Voice Overs by the Fanning sisters is superb. The rest of the english cast does a bang-up job as well. Some of the very non-western ideas sound a bit funny coming out of two kids speaking english, but it's not a distraction. It's great front to back, and the extra features were a treat to watch. I'm a fan of Hayao Miyazaki without question, but even a casual viewer will love this film. Do the kids a favor and pick this up. Do yourself a favor and watch it after the kids go to bed and be transported back in time to when you were in that same impressionable time.Now, while the box may LOOK like a Blu-ray movie, it is not. I take issue with folks dressing up "special edition" boxes to look like the familiar Blu-ray boxes. This has no bearing on the film, but the packaging sure looks like it is trying to pass itself off as a Blu-ray.

Such a great movie. I love anything studio Ghibli though :)

When they talk about the classic Miyazaki that almost everybody likes, this is the one people point to...It's not a controversial film like Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises, or (to a lesser extent) Howl's Moving Castle are.It's just a sweet little film that's inoffensive and very, very creative.The title character is one of the weirder creatures you'll see on film but is very endearing. I think many people in Japan probably bought a Totoro plush doll as their first plush doll! He certainly has become the symbol/mascot of Studio Ghibli just as Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse are the corporate symbols of Marvel Comics and Walt Disney Company respectively.I don't see anything offensive in this film and frankly don't understand the problem some people might have with the bathing scene in the movie. Likewise, the business of the mother being in the TB ward/sanitarium shouldn't really be something that keeps young kids from watching this film. Honestly, Bambi has more trauma than anything I've seen in this movie!If you have small kids or are going to start a Ghibli film collection, this is definitely the film to get or start with...P.S. -- I've seen both the Disney and Troma Films/Carl Macek-supervised English dubs of "My Neighbor Totoro." I frankly didn't understand why Disney did a new dub for the film but it's their money at any rate. The Disney home video release is better simply because the film is in proper aspect ratio and not cropped like the earlier Fox Video release with the original English dub. The Macek dub is actually one of the better dubs the late producer supervised and it's kind of a shame it's not available in the States on anything but the OOP Fox Video releases (VHS, laserdisc, and DVD).P.S. P.S. -- The older daughter in the film (on the original Japanese audio track) is voiced by Noriko Hidaka who is best known (in the West) as the original Japanese voice of Akane Tendo in the Ranma 1/2 anime series. She also voiced the character Noriko in the Gunbuster OVA series.

Got this for my kids, and they instantly fell in love with this anime.