My Neighbor Totoro

This was the best out of the Ghibli studio in my opinion, was a very moving story about the plight of the two sisters and their father who move into a new area and as their mother is in hospital, there is quite a lot going on with their lives .I found the story could be fun as well as sad at times with the three of them having to work out without their mum, the two girls meet the TOTORO god and is the most moving and fun gibli film i have seen and also the animation was amazing so much detail, also i watched this in the English and then the Japanese version and both were great to watch as each other .hope you enjoy this as much as i did .

All that ever will be said about the movie has been said already, the vast majority of which has been highly positive...so you don't need me to tell you how good it is. This review is just for the new 2010 Disney 2-disc 'Special Edition', with a feature packed extras disc. It is well worth re-investing in if you're a big Totoro fan. The UK single disc has literally a couple of trailers and storyboards, and the previous USA/R1 version made little use of the extra disc. This new version is packed with good stuff...as follows: The World of Ghibli: Creating My Neighbor Totoro Creating the Characters The Totoro Experience Producer's Perspective: Creating Ghibli The Locations of Totoro Scoring Miyazaki Original Japanese Trailer Behind the Microphone Creating Ponyo Creating Kiki's Delivery Service Castle in the Sky: Character Sketches Enter the Lands: (Interactive Map) ...the biggest and best of which is the 'Locations of Totoro', a half hour segment from a Japanese documentary which went in search of the real life locations that inspired the environments in Miyazaki's movies. This segment, of course, focuses solely on Totoro, and some of the real life locations are so close to the movie it is really quite astonishing. The full length storyboards from the original Totoro DVD releases are also present, as are a clutch of unrelated Disney trailers. The interactive map section is aimed at children, with simple little games to play and various Ghibli video clips to discover. The discs come in a 2-disc Amaray style keep case, with an embossed cardboard slip-cover. What will be of interest to fans is the choice of cover image - a very interesting piece of artwork featuring the bus stop scene from when Miyazaki was toying with the idea of there being just one child in the family, and that the girl in question has a face that looks like a hybrid of Satsuki and Mei. Fortunately, Miyazaki-san decided on two children...and we got to meet the lovable sisters we now know so well...but this is a very interesting and beautiful piece of art nonetheless, and it reveals to us part of the journey that the production took to get to the finished product. Disney have also been kind enough to include a collectable card lithograph of this cover art, which you will find inside the case. The only unfortunate thing is the fact that this is the exact same print of the movie as before - so no digital restoration has been carried out. However, when the original print of the movie was clean, colourful and well mastered, this is no bad thing. It's the same Dolby 2.0 audio track as before, too. Spoken language tracks are English, French and Japanese (all Dolby 2.0). For English subtitles you have 2 choices; the 'dubtitles' (the English dub word for word), and a literal Japanese to English translation...which is recommended for a more authentic experience. The English audio dub is, of course, the latter Disney dub, with the voices of the Fanning sisters...not the earlier Fox dub. However, many find Totoro is best enjoyed in native Japanese with subtitles, but the Disney English dub is there for those who prefer it, or for kids who can't keep up with the fast flow of text. I myself prefer to listen in Japanese with the English subs on. After all, these are the voice actors Miyazaki chose - and often English anime dubs tend to over-Americanise, rather than simply translate. All in all it is well worth the upgrade. Although I would point out that the Ghibli collection is sure to make the transition to Blu-Ray at some point...so some fans may want to hold off. Also available in the new Disney 2-disc special editions are 'Kiki's Delivery Service', 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' (just called 'Castle in the Sky' in the US) and 'Ponyo'. I believe more from the Ghibli stable are to follow in this new special edition range. Please bear in mind that you need a region free DVD player to be able to play these imported Region 1 DVD's.

not English

L'oeuvre de Miyazaki est exceptionele , dommage que l'expérience soit gâché par un livreur qui à forcer en mettant le coli dans ma boi^te aux lettre et l'a abîmer

Do not buy this item if you live in India its region B and nothing is mentioned in the description but the image shows its all region compatible hence if you are not in region B you cannot play this in a normal player

The film is simply great. The 'behind the scenes' special features in this edition were really great to watch. Since the film came out back in the 1980's, it is really nice to get a fresh perspective from the creator and his team. It is a simple, innocent story of a family during (allegedly) the 1950's in Japan. Mom is sick, and in essentially a quarantine/isolated hospital unit. Her husband and two daughters move out to the country to live near her while she recovers. The father is a professor at the local University, and very preoccupied with his studies and, quite obviously, his ill wife. The film is a fantastic story of the sisters discovery of their neighbor 'Totoro', a big furry awesome character that lives 'next door'. They have some great moments and some tremendous adventures. The true story is really about the daughters dealing with the uncertainty of their mothers condition, moving to a new town and dealing with a new school all the while discovering new friendships and dealing with hardship simultaneously. It does a great job of showing just how creative kids are, and also makes you think twice about your own inability to believe in the fantastic as an adult. It perfectly captures the transitional period between being an innocent child and the wonderful discovery of a world that is much more than you ever imagined. The english Voice Overs by the Fanning sisters is superb. The rest of the english cast does a bang-up job as well. Some of the very non-western ideas sound a bit funny coming out of two kids speaking english, but it's not a distraction. It's great front to back, and the extra features were a treat to watch. I'm a fan of Hayao Miyazaki without question, but even a casual viewer will love this film. Do the kids a favor and pick this up. Do yourself a favor and watch it after the kids go to bed and be transported back in time to when you were in that same impressionable time. Now, while the box may LOOK like a Blu-ray movie, it is not. I take issue with folks dressing up "special edition" boxes to look like the familiar Blu-ray boxes. This has no bearing on the film, but the packaging sure looks like it is trying to pass itself off as a Blu-ray.

Back when this movie first came out; the late Gene Siskell and his buddy Roger Ebert reviewed this movie and called it quite possibly the best family movie ever made! And despite all the additional movies that have been produced since then - IT STILL IS! What makes this movie so good? Made by Studio Gibli and it's co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki (called the Walt Disney of Japan). It's a virtually perfect blend of family, detail and fantasy all rolled into one! It starts out with two sisters and their father moving into a run-down rural house that they've rented for the summer. Then slowly ups the ante that there may be more to this house than meets the eyes as the little sister starts to see little critters that no one else can see! She's absolutely adorable. In fact this is one of the best parts of Ghibli movies; their characters are all so absolutely real. The little sister looks like, acts like, throws tantrums like, explores like just any little pre-schooler would. Then throw in the older sister who's trying to take care of her, the house and their father while their mother is away in the hospital fighting some unknown illness and you can just feel the realism and the family dynamics. Then when the older sister also starts to see things that shouldn't exist and discovers the guardian of the forest is a big gentle giant by the name of Totoro; it really gets to be both exciting and fun at the same time with magical cat buses, dust bunnies that can actually move and all sorts of magical adventures! The other thing I like about this and later Ghibli movies like Kiki's Delivery Service, Arrietty, Whisper of the Heart and Ponyo (all of which I highly recommend) is that these movies don't fall back on the usual stereotypes of some despicable villain that has to be fought and stopped. Or everything always has to be settled with a fight. Instead they have lots of action, wonderful discoveries at every turn; but no villain! There is a major problem to be solved, friends to be rescued or helped, but things don't have to be settled with violence! That is so refreshing at times. This is one of those rare family movies that adults will like equally with their kids. And even today with the thousands of movies I've seen; this is still and always will be one of my absolute favourites. Five stars all the way! J. A. P.S. - Don't confuse this Disney version of Totoro with an older Pan and Scan version that was originally marketed over ten years ago by Fox. This is a top quality 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks superb in either dvd or BD versions. Reviews that talk about it being cut are referring to the older no-longer sold Fox version.

英語版のトトロは、会話の練習にはもってこいのものです。興味を持って聞くと、聞き取りがアップします。