My Neighbor Totoro is an animated Japanese film from 1988 directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The English dub version of My Neighbor Totoro was released on March 7th, 2006 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Dakota and Elle Fanning voice two of the main characters in the film, Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe. In the film, Satsuki and Mei move into a house that is closer to the hospital their mother is recovering at. Whilst Mei follows a creature with bunny-like ears into a very large tree one day, she meets an even larger version of the same creature with bunny-like ears and names him Totoro.

At the beginning of the film the Kusakabe family is moving into their new home. Satsuki and Mei find soot spirits (black dust-like creatures that move from dark to light places within the house) and that begins their fun adventure together in their new home. Whilst playing around outside one day, Mei spots a little white creature that has ears like a bunny. It is not very long until the same kind of creature, this time a little bigger and blue, pops out of the tall grass and follows the tiny white creature to a big tree. Mei follows after them and find herself inside of the tree and in the presence of an even bigger creature (exactly like the white and blue one) with bunny-like ears but is grey. She names him Totoro.

Mei tries to show Totoro to her father, Tatsuo, and her older sister, Satsuki, but every time she tries to get them to see him Totoro disappears. Her father comforts her by saying Totoro will reveal himself when he is ready to be seen by other. A few days after saying that, Satsuki and Mei are waiting at their father’s bus stop for him and Totoro shows up. Satsuki is quite shocked at the giant creature, but has now had the chance to see him. After that, the three of them have many adventures together. They help the seeds in the garden grow, ride around in a giant cat bus, venture around in the giant tree in where Totoro lives, and much more.

My Neighbor Totoro is one of my favorite animated films. It never fails to make me laugh and smile. I recommend this film to anyone who has an interest in animated films, and/or Japanese anime.