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My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Jp.) (aka
Tonari no Totoro)
In director Hayao Miyazaki's fanciful and imaginative
anime tale about friendship between two young daughters in late 1950s
Japan - the director's breakthrough film:
- the two main characters - young protagonist sisters:
10-year-old Satsuki and 4-year-old Mei, daughters of Anthropology
Professor Kusakabe in Tokyo, living in the rural countryside while
their mother was recuperating in a hospital of an illness
- in the mystical forest around the farmhouse, Mei discovered
a menagerie of small, friendly house 'sprites' (or spirits), known
as Totoros (gods of the forest) (pronounced toe-toe-ro); the three
spirits were: (1) a translucent, small white creature (a Chibi Totoro),
and (2) a medium-sized blue creature (a Chuu Totoro); and the third
gray creature (an Oh Totoro), the biggest and eldest, the King or
Guardian of the Forest, who was found sleeping inside a large camphor
tree
- one rainy night, as the two sisters (Mei was clinging
onto Satsuki's back) waited at a bus stop, Oh Totoro revealed himself
with only a leaf on his head for protection against the rain; Oh
Totoro handed the girls a package (filled with acorns) before he
left
- after planting the acorns in a garden, the girls watched
one night as the seedlings sprouted and a new forest of acorn trees
quickly grew up
- the first appearance of the "cat bus" -
a 12 legged, feline vehicle, one of the magical and whimsical creatures
in the forest; it had a wide mouth and face, was striped, and slightly
resembled the "Cheshire Cat" in Lewis Carroll's Alice
in Wonderland
The "Cat Bus"
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- the later reunion of the two sisters, who were transported
in the bus to the hospital to see their ill mother Yasuko
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(l to r): Mei and Satsuki
Two Small, Rabbit-Eared House Spirits or Totoros
At the Bus Stop: Oh Totoro
The Fast-Growing Acorn Trees in Their Garden
Satsuki and Mei On The Way to Hospital to Visit Their
Mother
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