A gentle, deeply felt fantasy about childhood, grief, and the consolations of nature. Its magic is quiet rather than plot-driven, but the emotional clarity and visual imagination make it a landmark family film.
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
Director
Hayao Miyazaki
Cast
Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Hitoshi Takagi
Curator Review
Verdict
A gentle, deeply felt fantasy about childhood, grief, and the consolations of nature. Its magic is quiet rather than plot-driven, but the emotional clarity and visual imagination make it a landmark family film.
Best for
Viewers who love soothing, low-stakes fantasy
Families with kids who respond to wonder over action
Fans of animation with hand-crafted detail and atmosphere
Anyone looking for a comforting film about childhood and nature
Skip if
You need a fast-moving plot or clear villain
You prefer jokes, twists, or conventional three-act structure
You want high-stakes fantasy adventure
You dislike films that are more mood and feeling than narrative machinery
Overview
My Neighbor Totoro is one of cinema’s purest expressions of childhood wonder. It turns a rural house, a patch of woods, and a family’s anxious wait for a mother’s recovery into something luminous and alive, where the ordinary and the magical coexist without explanation. That restraint is the point: the film trusts sensation, memory, and emotional truth more than plot mechanics.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is how gently it handles fear and comfort. The sisters’ loneliness is real, but the movie never becomes heavy-handed about it; instead, it offers companionship, curiosity, and the possibility that the world is kinder and stranger than adults often assume. The forest spirits feel less like fantasy creatures than embodiments of attention and care.
Bottom line
The animation is exquisitely observed, from weather and foliage to small domestic gestures. It’s a film that can feel almost weightless on first viewing and yet leave a lasting imprint. Few family films are this serene, this funny in passing, or this emotionally generous without ever announcing that generosity.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Jenkins (5★) · 34618 likes
No plot. No central character. No antagonist. No defined purpose for side characters. No threat. No three acts. No jokes. No punchlines. No explanations. No internal references. No catchphrases. No political polemical voice. No melodrama. No lessons. No beginning. No end. One of the best films ever made.
mia lee vicino (4.5★) · 15563 likes
Totoro has leaf on head : )
maria (5★) · 13331 likes
IS THIS WHAT HAPPINESS FEELS LIKE?????
Lucy (4★) · 8388 likes
CAT BUS
James (Schaffrillas) (4.5★) · 7979 likes
I love how Totoro calls the cat bus for Satsuki and then he's like "Alright, I ain't getting on that shit, my work here is done, peace"
Themes
childhood wonder, family bonds, nature and the countryside, illness and recovery, grief and comfort, imagination and belief, quiet fantasy, coming-of-age
Topics
hand-drawn animation, family fantasy, coming-of-age, slice of life, nature spirits, childhood wonder, gentle tone, 1980s cinema, Japanese animation, comfort viewing