Set in rural Japan during the 1950s. Satsuki (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a tomboy of about ten. She has a younger sister, Mei (v.b. Elle Fanning), about four years old. They move into a country home with their easygoing father (v.b. Tim Daly), a college professor. Their mother is absent, confined to a hospital a few miles away, though she is expected to return home soon.
The children eagerly explore their new neighborhood, which includes a small forest. One day, Mei is alone, and witnesses strange furry potato-shaped critters walking about. She follows them down a narrow path, and becomes lost. She meets the largest of the creatures, who calls himself Totoro.
Mei returns home, and tells Satsuki. The latter also befriends Totoro, who is only visible to children. When Mei becomes lost while attempting to walk to the hospital, Totoro helps Satsuki find Mei.
How others will see it. At the 1989 Kinema Junpo Awards, My Neighbor Totoro won Best Film, and was presumably the first animated feature to accomplish this.
Nonetheless, the movie was initially a commercial disappointment, but that changed over the years, particularly after 1996, when Disney purchased the U.S. rights to Studio Ghibli films.
Today at imdb.com, My Neighbor Totoro has an enormous 410K user votes, indicating its popularity with children and their parents. The user rating of 8.1 (out of 10) is unusually high. Nearly all viewers are completely charmed by the movie, which is entirely appropriate for child viewing.
How I felt about it. I live with grandchildren aged 3 and 6, and the relationship between Satsuki and Mei, as well as their innocent dialogue, seem mostly credible, something I can't say about every family movie.
The exception is the effort that Satsuki expends to find Mei, running until exhausted down rural roads to find her younger sister. This level of heroism is endearing to viewers, but feels moderately over the top to me, reminiscent of Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth.
The other part of the movie I didn't fully like are the fantasy characters, especially the King Totoro and the cat bus. They are too good to be true. That is, they are exactly as little girls would want them to be. The good news is that they are used sparingly. Mostly, this is a movie about the two children.
The film has autobiographical elements for its creator, Hayao Miyazaki. During the 1950s, his mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis in a rural Japanese hospital, when Miyazaki was a young child with an older brother. Though he was not so fortunate to have magical silent docile creatures (that no adults could see) appear whenever he was in peril.