“Do you like spirits mummy? Even fuzzy ones?” – Mei
- On its original release in Japan in 1988, the film was double-featured with Grave of the Fireflies. This was because Studio Ghibli believe Grave of the Fireflies was too big a financial risk to have as a stand-alone release
- There is a Totoro plush toy that makes an appearance in Toy Story 3
- The film is considered to be partly autobiographical. When Miyazaki and his siblings were children, his mother suffered from spinal tuberculosis. This resulted in her spending much of her time in hospital – such as how Satsuki and Mei’s mother suffers from the same disease and spends the duration of the film in hospital. Miyazaki has even said before that the film would have been too painful for him to make if the two children were boys instead of girls
- There’s a geographical error in the movie. When Satsuki and Mei are waiting for the bus in the rain, the stop sign reads ‘Maezawa-gyo’ in some scenes while in other scenes the sign has ‘Shichikokuyama-gyo’ written on it
- My Neighbour Totoro was not a big success when it hit the theatre. It wasn’t until two years later when the movie began to receive high praise
- ‘Satsuki’ means ‘May’ in Japanese while Mei is pronounced as ‘May.’ And Studio Ghibli decided to release the film in May…
- The film has been through two English adaptions – one in 1993 and one in 2005. The first adaption did not satisfy Miyazaki as he felt it didn’t do the film justice, so it was redone in 2005
- The movie was the first animated film to win Picture of the year at the Japanese Academy Awards
I really liked the cat bus 🙂
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The cat bus is so awesome!!!
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This is one my favourite Ghibli films along side Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away. It’s interesting that Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were released together since both are very different and powerful in their own ways.
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Definitely! Especially considering how in one movie the audience would be in tears and then later get to enjoy a more ‘cute’ film… It would have made for a very interesting experience!
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Exactly! I do wonder what type of experience that was.
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If they screened Grave of the Fireflies first I hope they had a break in between because they’d need it… I mean you practically spend 2 hours crying when you watch it!
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True say! I do wonder how you’d enjoy my neighbour totoro after such an emotional movie. Like, I’d be way too upset to see the beauty in it and wouldn’t be able to concentrate at all.
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It would have been such an emotional roller-coaster for the audience…
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