My Neighbor Totoro (1988) movie poster

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

となりのトトロ
"He's your friendly neighbourhood forest spirit!"
ThumbScore
👍 94%Google users liked it ⓘ
Critics Score
🎬 90%
FantasyAnimationFamily

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Where to Watch

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Director
Runtime
1h 26m
Rated
G
Country
Japan
Language
Japanese
TMDB Rating
8.1/10 (8,678 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes
94%
Metacritic
87

Cast

Noriko Hidaka as Satsuki Kusakabe (voice) · 82% avg
Chika Sakamoto as Mei Kusakabe (voice)
Hitoshi Takagi as Totoro (voice)
Shigesato Itoi as Tatsuo Kusakabe (voice)
Sumi Shimamoto as Yasuko Kusakabe (voice) · 88% avg
Tanie Kitabayashi as Granny (voice)
Toshiyuki Amagasa as Kanta Ogaki (voice)
Yuko Maruyama as Kanta's Mother (voice)

Is My Neighbor Totoro good?

Yes. 94% of real audiences liked it, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 90%.

Where it ranks on ThumbScore

Rank in its genre
#8 / 937 · Fantasy
Rank in its year
#2 / 67 · 1988
Rank among its director's films
#4 / 12 · Hayao Miyazaki

By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.

Overview

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her. Wikipedia ↗

About the Film

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, one of Studio Ghibli's most beloved and iconic works. The film follows two young sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to the countryside with their father to be closer to their mother, who is recovering from an illness in a nearby hospital. In the forests surrounding their new home, the girls discover Totoro, a giant, gentle forest spirit who becomes their friend and magical companion, along with other woodland creatures including the Catbus — a grinning, twelve-legged cat that functions as a living bus.

My Neighbor Totoro contains no villain, no conflict in the traditional sense, and virtually no plot — it is a film about the wonder of childhood, the beauty of nature, and the quiet anxieties of young children facing their mother's illness, rendered with an attention to everyday detail that makes the mundane magical. Totoro himself — a rotund, furry creature with enormous eyes and a wide grin who stands at a bus stop holding an umbrella — became one of the most recognized and beloved animated characters in the world and Studio Ghibli's official logo. Joe Hisaishi's score, featuring the infectiously cheerful "Tonari no Totoro" theme song, perfectly captured the film's spirit of gentle wonder.

My Neighbor Totoro was a modest commercial performer upon release but has grown into a cultural institution in Japan, where Totoro merchandise is ubiquitous and the film is considered a national treasure.

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What Reddit Thinks

r/movies
⬆ 30,305💬 718 comments
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) finally gets an official screening in Chinese cinemas
Top comment: "It kills me that I can't legally stream most Miyazaki movies. Amazon, Apple, Netflix, nowhere."
r/movies
⬆ 24,500💬 552 comments
Studio Ghibli's Anime Classic 'My Neighbor Totoro' Returning to Theaters for 30th Anniversary Starting September 30th, 2018
Top comment: "Let me be the 50,175th to say that Ghibli Fest is a godsend"
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