"My Neighbor Totoro"

     "My Neighbor Totoro" is a wonderful animated film that tells an enchanting story about two sisters named Satsuki and Mei.  Along with their father, Satsuki and Mei are a family missing their mother who is sick and in the hospital.  The story opens with the family beginning to explore a new house, which they moved into to be closer to the hospital where their mother is.  While laughing and smiling the girls are having a look around their new home and are already beginning to make magical discoveries.  Mei peeks into a dark room to find hundreds of little eyes, and being the innocent child that she is, Mei is curious about her new discovery.  The little dust bunnies scatter away at the sight of her but we watch in joy as she tries desperately to capture one.  We learn that these little balls of soot are only seen by the children and soon leave the house after the girls begin to have fun and laugh along with their father.  As a result of their countryside property being so large, adventure lurks around every corner of this new unexplored land.  Mei stumbles upon two rabbit-like creatures in the yard and follows them into the trees behind the house.  There she meets Totoro, and she can't believe her eyes.  Totoro is an enormous, scary-looking, yet friendly creature of the forest.  He's sleeping but Mei is unafraid and sits atop his belly.  She stares in disbelief, plays with him, and eventually falls asleep on him.  When her sister and father find her sleeping on the ground and wake her, Totoro has disappeared.  Satsuki expresses her wish to meet Totoro too, and she eventually does one night while the girls wait for their father to return from work at the bus stop.  It's raining and Satsuki looks up from her umbrella to find Totoro standing next to her.  He hands her a bundle of acorns and seeds, which Satsuki and Mei plant right away.  The children's imagination takes flight as they witness an entire forest begin to grow from the seeds, which brings them joy.  Later, Satsuki gets a phone call of bad news from the hospital where her mother is and Satsuki, out of anger and frustration, yells at her little sister.  Mei then runs away in an attempt to visit her mom at the hospital and winds up getting lost.  Satsuki begs Totoro to help her find Mei, and he does. The story comes to a happy ending as their mother returns home from the hospital and Totoro and his friends watch over the family, unseen.

     Aside from the ongoing theme of sisterly and family love, the most powerful theme in this film is the magical imagination of Mei and Satsuki.  In their minds they create an incredibly colorful world of make-believe where they are taken on wild adventures.  Absolutely nothing can compare or is more endearing than what a child's imagination can dream up.
     I absolutely loved this film.  The magic and adventure brought me back to my own childhood.  Films like this, although animated and meant to be viewed by a younger audience, have the power to awaken and bring to life the child inside any adult.  Along with the smile that was on my face throughout the entire film, that's exactly what this film did for me.