My Neighbor Totoro

This movie is a must own classic for every dvd library, and happens to be my personal favorite movie, animated or otherwise. Beautiful to watch, it will tickle your funny bone and your heart. Great for the whole family to enjoy together!

The English language soundtrack for this movie is dull and uninspired. Even though I don't understand much Japanese, the movie is much more fun in the original with subtitles, because of the energy of the voices. It begins with the title: in Japanese it's "Tonari no Totoro," which is alliterative and poetic, where the English "My Neighbor Totoro" is literally faithful but utterly boring.

This seems to have been released in the US mainly for anime lovers and fans of the original. If the US distributor (Disney it appears) were to commission a "remake" of the dub, with a better translation, music, and voice talent, they could have a real "Finding Nemo" like hit on their hands.

"My Neighbor Totoro" is one of those movies that you watch...and watch...and watch again. Miyazaki Hayao has once again opened the portals to imagination and given us a wonderful, heart-warming story that children and adults will find entertaining, if not thought provoking. If you've never watched a Miyazaki Hayao movie before, this is the one to start with!

I love My Neighbor Totoro, but this one that disney put out really sucked, They changed the voices, took out a lot of lines, and just all around messed it up. i have the orginal tape that streamline put out back in the early 90's and have pretty much grown up with the movie and i love it. its just really hard to see everything that was good about the movie changed so much. It took always all that we love about the anime. All my friends who watched this dvd said the same thing.

I remember watching this movie when it frist came out and simply being at awe with it. No bad guys ... little girls and fuzzy monsters ... come one, how can that beat Akira? Well, it just does. It's been my favorite move for years and now it's my daughter's favorite movie too.

I think the thing that gets me the most is Myazaki's treatment of the parents. When the children tell them of ghosts and monsters, there's instant belief ... no pats on the head followed by "silly girls" ... the father plays along and encourages them with kindness and understanding ... awesome.

The artwork is not Disney and it's not Pixar or Dreamworks ... its just simply amazing and warm. makes you want to just jump into the movie and play along.

Get this movie for your kids, get this movie for yourself, you wont be disappointed.