Tonari no Totoro

Director Hayao Miyazaki is my favorite director of all time. Along with a company called Studio Ghibli which he co-founded, Miyazaki created many memorable animated films. One of which is Tonari no Totoro or My Neighbor Totoro in English. One of my favorite films of all time and the first film by Miyazaki I watched. It was completely different from the films I had seen in the past when I first watched it. It was fun to watch, soothing to hear, an interesting story, and was still able to promote the themes that Miyazaki lives by. This film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix, an award given out by the Animage magazine. It is a well known award when it comes to Japanese anime, and is a pretty important award in the anime world Miyazaki played a huge role in creating this film, mainly because he wrote it. In this film, Miyazaki incorporates Japanese culture, as well as his own beliefs and ideas. A lot of people think Totoro is supposed to be a kami spirit of the Shinto religion, a kami spirit supposedly looks after nature. Causes of thunder, wind, the sun and other natural occurrences. In this film and many other films that were directed by Miyazaki have themes that tie it to nature. As well as how humans interact with nature and technology, how these three things come in contact with one another. In this particular film the technology isn't as apparent as some of his other films, such as Princess Mononoke or Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Another one of his themes that he uses quiet often is how hard it is to become and stay a pacifist, the difficulties of avoiding violence. There are two more things that many of his films have in common. One are the antagonists, they are usually strong headed individuals that follow their own beliefs even though it might seem different from the protagonist. They usually aren't entirely evil, they tend to change through the movie and redeem themselves. Then there are the protagonists of Miyazaki's films. They tend to be young females that are innocent and just seem like a normal person, but they demonstrate their bravery and strength when it is needed in the films. This film demonstrates more of the strong young female protagonist and the connection of humans with nature. Those two things are most common in his films that I have seen. But the films by Miyazaki appeal to me not only because of the themes, but his ability to entertain the people that watch his films. People young and old are able to watch these films and become entertained, even a child that doesn't understand a thing about humans and their connection with nature will find his films entertaining. Without analyzing a anything in his films, I found enjoyment just watching the films. Miyazaki's creativeness and original ideas really make his films fun to watch. Even while making these films extremely entertaining, he is still able to create these interesting worlds in the films based on his themes. I personally love the music created by Joe Hisaishi as well, this music really helps make Miyazaki's films a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. Hayao Miyazaki is definately my favorite director and deeply involved in all of his films. I still don't really know which film is my favorite of his films, but Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind are two films that I highly recommend. I just wish I knew when his next film is finished.

Two Songs from My Neighbor Totoro:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pWwOVkfv_FU


http://youtube.com/watch?v=BpUHQjO-smU

Bibliography:
http://www.math.sc.edu/~griggs/Family/totoro.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki