My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
This is a gem of a movie—precious, joyous, enchanting and a
little sad. It’s about a childhood where there are adventures to be had at
every corner, spirits and creatures in the forests to frolic with, of cat buses
and furry trolls, of plucking corns and driving sooty sprites away with
laughter. It’s about big fat tears and wonderful giggles. It’s about breathtaking
visuals and lyrical moments.
It’s about two girls—short-haired and lanky Satsuki (about
10 years old) and her cuddly pig-tailed baby sister Mei (about four years old.)
They move into rural post war Japan with their professor father to be near
their long-term ill mother in a nearby hospital. Their house is old, rickety,
falling apart in places and most importantly, allegedly haunted. There is a giant camphor tree in the yard that
looks all mysterious. The girls are excited and just a bit scared.
They settle down to their new life with zest and
cartwheels. Mei follows her sister
everywhere and wants to do everything she does. Satsuki is all grown up and
responsible. Dad is gentle and engages in all the stories of spirits and
creatures of the forest. Their visit to see their mother is a picnic on dad’s
bicycle.
Mei, being the youngest, is the most intrepid of them all.
She follows a bunny-like troll through a path under the bushes only to fall, a
la Alice, into a rabbit hole under the camphor tree. She lands up on the furry
chest of a giant troll who is sleeping. It is not scary or stressful—she merely goes to sleep herself. Satsuki later
finds her asleep under the bushes.
Dad doesn’t discount the tale of the troll, whom Mei
mispronounces as Totoro. He just says one has to be very lucky to see the
keeper of the forest. Well, Satsuki’s luck turns shortly one rainy evening, as
she and Mei wait for their dad at the bus stop.
The troll comes and stands next to her in a friendly protective way. He
seems to have a heart of a child too—he jumps to dislodge water droplets from
the branches of trees overhead. He is then picked up by this wonderful cat bus,
which has eight legs and two eyes as headlights.
Life goes on until one day, they get a telegram from the
hospital. Dad is away at work so it is up to Satsuki to figure out what next.
In the stress, she and Mei have a fight. Mei goes missing after that. Satsuki
is convinced that Mei has gone to meet their mother. There is some tale about a sandal found in the
nearby lake.
I cried and cried during this sequence. All ends well but
the movie left me with a bitter sweet taste.
As I have said elsewhere, Miyazaki movies are full of little
touches and moments. This movie abounds in them. Check the sequence where
Satsuki is turning cartwheels and Mei, following her tumbles on her head, all
pink dress over white fanny and chubby limbs. Or the sequence when dad is crawling
under the bushes with his daughters using his sandals to protect his hands—when
he gets up, he drops them to wear them on his feet while talking. Or when the
girls go to meet their mother, there is a touching moment when mom brushes her
daughter’s hair.
For me, there are two absolutely beautiful moments in the
movie—the first is when Satsuki at school glances out to find Mei standing at
the gate with the neighbor grandma. Grandma tells Satsuki that Mei wanted to be
with her sister. Mei, all trembling chin and tears rolling on her cheek, runs
to hug her sister. Cut to Mei sitting cozily between Satsuki and her friend in
class and teacher telling the class that Mei is sad because her mother is in
the hospital.
The second is when the two sisters are waiting for their
father at the bus stop. It is pouring and as it gets late, little Mei is sleepy
and is finding it hard to keep her eyes open. Satsuki, without much ado, picks
up her sister and carries her on her back.
I didn’t know that animation movies could be this fluid, subtle
or nuanced. Watch the movie with your family. And don’t forget to keep a box of
Kleenex handy.
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)
Ponyo, the simpler, Hollywoodized version of Miyazaki is
also my least favorite (for the same reason) of the three movies. It is a
little boy-girl version of the little mermaid for the post “Inconvenient Truth”
world.
Ponyo is a little gold fish princess protected, along with
her many sisters, by her once-land bound father, Fujimoto. Fujimoto is
disgusted with the way humans have been destroying the oceans and one day
dreams of leading an uprising that would restore ocean’s rightful place. He
keeps his daughters under a spell to protect them. Ponyo however, is spirited
and adventurous. She escapes the confines of her home one day and gets caught
in a trawling net.
She is rescued by a five-year old boy Sosuke, who lives with
his parents on a cliff-side home. The two instantly fall in love with each
other. But Fujimoto comes and rescues his daughter back. But by now, Ponyo
wants to be human and go back. She goes behind her dad’s back, breaks the spell
and becomes human and rises to meet Sosuke. She unwittingly causes a tsunami
but she ends up with Sosuke and his mom.
It is now up to Ponyo’s father and mother, who is none other
than Guranmamere or Goddess of Mercy, to bring back the balance of nature. Before
that, she needs to test Sosuke’s love for Ponyo.
Thus begins an aquatic adventure of epic proportions, in the
backdrop of a tsunami-hit town. Viewing this mild and friendly tsunami from the
post 2011 tsunami in Japan might make us a little queasy, but as Richard
Corliss of Time Magazine puts it, “But Ponyo… is a parable for children, and
they're entitled to the gift of hope.”
To those who thought the CGI of Finding Nemo was the
peaches, here’s a rethink on the power of hand drawn animation. The visuals are
nothing short of breathtaking in this movie, from the garbage on the sea bed to
the majestic rising waves to a road submerged in water and freely used by
ancient underwater creatures resurrected.
Watch it for the fabulous visuals and for the visionary call
to action against abusing our oceans.
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