‘My Neighbor Totoro’: a child’s communion with nature

Above : The Japanese animated film “My Neighbor Totoro” will screen at 7 Thursday night at select area theaters. (Photo/Studio Ghibli)

Of all the animated film that have come out of Studio Ghibli, the most child-like is “My Neighbor Totoro.” It was a favorite with my grandchildren when they were barely out of diapers.

Released in 1988, written and directed by the great Hayao Miyazak i, “My Neighbor Totoro” was Miyazaki’s third full-length feature (following 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” and 1986’s “Castle in the Sky”).

But unlike those two first films, which feature young protagonists but have them braving pirates and various war-like situations, “My Neighbor Totoro” is a simple tale of two sisters becoming aware of, and befriending, the creatures living in their new country home.

It may be a bit much to call the film “simple,” though. For one, Miyazaki set his film in the 1950s, barely a decade following the end of World War II and the two atomic bomb blasts that ended it. For another, as has been pointed out, the film contains references to the Japanese tradition of Shinto .

Little children likely won’t get those references, though. But my own daughter, at least, loved stories of sprites, pixies and fairies that she wanted to believe lived in the trees that sat behind our house. On that level, in addition to Miyazaki’s animation, anyone can enjoy “My Neighbor Totoro.”

The film will screen locally one final time Thursday at 7 at both AMC River Park Square and Regal Northtown Mall. The version playing is dubbed into English and features the voices of Dakota and Elle Fanning, plus Tim Daly.

“My Neighbor Totoro” is, of course, available for home viewing through various streaming services . That way you can see it (as I prefer to) in the original language with subtitles.

Nothing, though, beats watching a Miyazaki film – any Miyazaki film – on a big screen.