People talk about this movie like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread but I found it to be very middle-of-the-road. I do desperately want a plush Totoro, though. He looks super-soft and cuddly. The cat-bus was too creepy, though.Satsuki (Noriko Hidaka) and her little sister Mei (Chika Sakamoto) move to the countryside while their mom is in the hospital. They find several magical creatures in the surrounding woods, including Totoro, a giant rabbit-kitty-thing that is the spirit of the forest. When Mei gets lost, Satsuki calls on Totoro to help her find the little girl.
This was adorable, I'm not going to argue that. My problem was that Mei was written as a toddler and is way too close to actual toddler reactions. There is a lot of frustrated crying and running away. I hate children. I tolerate animated ones because they are usually wise beyond their years as far as reactions and articulations go. This was too real to be cute to me. Give me child characters obviously written by adults any day.
As with all Studio Ghibli releases, this one had an option to hear the dubbed track with Disney actors. I decided to stay with my subtitle kick and watch the original Japanese version. However, the English one stars real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei, respectively, so that might actually be worth a view.
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