My Neighbor Totoro Reviews

• Listen to what I have to say before you vote "NO"

  
  By AFL04X8D4TDG8 on 2006-01-21
  First off, I just want to say that I love Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's work tremendously. And for the most part, Disney's done a good job bringing their films to America. But, they were bound to screw up somewhere. This is where they did.
  
  My Neighbor Totoro is a wonderful film with a great story and lovable characters. It's one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. So, if you're reading this, you're probably asking yourselves "Why only two stars?". Well, I saw this version of the movie on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) with their celebration of Mr. Miyazaki. I was appalled.
  
  Most of you probably know that this film was released in the US once before by Fox. Except for the fact that they didn't release it in wide-screen format, they had it down. Disney went and trashed a wonderful film.
  
  For starters, the lead character, Satsuki, is voiced by Dakota Fanning. Her performance was by far the worst. Sometimes Satsuki would be moving her mouth, but no words were coming out, if only for a second. At other times, she had too little emotion in her voice to do justice to Satsuki's current actions. And Dakota's sister, Elle, voices Satsuki's sister, Mei. Mei is supposed to be four years old, but the way Elle portrays Mei doesn't make her sound that way. Both girls voices sound too American and not believable. This is probably my biggest argument with Disney's release of Totoro.
  
  Next up, we have everybody else's voiceovers. For starters, Pat Carroll as Granny. I'd say that she was okay, but definitely could've been done much better. Then Tim Daly as the Father. Again, it was okay, but still could have been better. And yes, Frank Welker as Totoro and the Catbus. One is the title character, and the other is probably the most imaginative character in the story. For Totoro, Frank made him sound too ferocious. He is the king of the forest, but he's still cuddly! And he takes good care of Mei and Satsuki. I think he should have made Totoro sound a tad more friendly. As for Catbus, when I heard it my jaw dropped and I screamed for mercy. It sounded a lot like Stitch, from the movie Lilo and Stitch, (and in Lilo and Stitch 2 we hear Dakota again and sounds nothing like Daveigh Chase, the original Lilo, but that's another matter), and it made Catbus sound way too creepy and weird. I think the only voiceover I can agree with is the Mother, voiced by Lea Salonga.
  
  Lastly, I just can't see why Disney couldn't have kept Fox's voiceovers. They were great quality and believable, and if you watch both versions you'll probably agree with me. Whoever decided to do this movie again with these horrible voiceovers was probably one of the following. 1) He/She was deaf. 2) He/She is a Dakota Fanning fan. 3) He/She was high, drunk, or both. I just pray that John Lassetter or Hayao Miyazaki will see this and file a lawsuit.
  
  The only logical reason you should buy this DVD is either because you're getting it for a three year old who can't talk and won't care, or because you want the Japanese version of the film, also on this set. I'm buying this DVD for the second reason alone. If you don't care about watching this in Japanese, then I suggest scouring the internet for the discontinued Fox edition of the film, which is my plan.
  
  

• This is a PERFECT movie; this DVD release is NOT

  
  By A35N994LFGPBWS on 2002-10-25
  If you are a fan of Totoro (and what right thinking individual isn't!) then you may want to leave this DVD release on the shelf come December 3...In Japan, Totoro was graced with a spectacular DVD release featuing multiple dialog and subtitled options, as well as featurettes, artwork, and options for both full screen and letterbox versions...i the meantime, I would recommend this version ONLY to friends with small children who have not seen the film before. The print quality of the VHS version was quite good and the dubbing job is excellent, considering the shabby treatment that most Japanese animated films recieve. This is, first and foremost, a film of remarkable beauty and warmth. It is precious and timeless. By all means take advantage of the low price and share it with children. But for your own collection, you will most certainly want to wait for the (cross your fingers and send those letters now) Disney Edition.
  
  

• "He plays a magic flute in the sky"

  
  By A1M4NJYP0WNL8Q on 2003-01-11
  It is depressing to have thoroughly enjoyed a film or book, and find that it is has become fashionable to pan the work because of the packaging and skip over its contents. That Fox chose to treat 'My Neighbor Totoro' as a children's film, fitting it into the television aspect ratio and providing dubbing that was aimed at that audience, will displease some purists. However, it isn't going to displease many children who suddenly have access to a beautiful work with strong positive values and a marvelous insight into Japanese culture. Speaking as overweight, over aged child, it didn't displease me either. If you are a purist, however, be warned. This is a production intended to be viable at the price of a children's video. If you are expecting the benefits of a general audience DVD, you will be disappointed.

  Satsuki (10), Mei (5), and their father have moved into a rural setting so that they can be close to their mother, who is ill (tuberculosis?), and is resting at a nearby hospital. The film talks about the girls experiences, mundane and magical as they wait for the time when their mother can return. Part of writer/director Hayao Miyazaki's brilliance is in not turning this into a tragic story or morbid story. Instead, we see the children's excitement in their new home, and the close affection that interpenetrates their family life. Only then does Miyazaki introduce the theme of the mother's illness. This helps us to keep focused on the children's strength, rather than any sense of impending doom.

  When Mei chases a strange animal that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a teddy bear into the woods, she falls down a hole (just like Alice) and find a giant fluffy creature called a Totoro, who may or may not be 'the lord or the forest,' but in short order is the lord of our hearts. The Totoro is magic at its best, soft enough to sleep on, able to fly about the forest, grow giant trees and summon a cat bus that will always take you where you need to go. As a child's imaginary playmate should be, the Totoro is playmate, friend, and protection. For the two children, the Totoro and its other spirit friends are the creatures that shout love, the powers that keep things from falling apart.

  The film is quite honest about the feelings of these children as they cope with their own fears for their mother. It is rare that a film speaks genuinely for children in this predicament, and attempts to set an effective coping model. This is special. It lifts the story to the level where it has something important to say to such children without making it the least bit preachy. In thinking over the film, I find that what is really magic isn't the Totoro's amazing powers, but the relations between the human characters. They are many and all think nothing of helping each other and sharing. Perhaps the real message isn't about Totoro's that live in trees, but the Totoro's that live in our hearts and the hearts of our friends. Highly recommended.
  
  

• A wonderful movie ruined by a poor DVD release

  
  By A2MGSQRO957Y3O on 2003-01-18
  I recently watched My Neighbor Totoro in its original Japanese language, in widescreen, with nearly perfect subtitles. It was a great movie, possibly Miyazaki's best in my opinion. Unfortunately, it was a bootleg copy and the respective studios got no money from my purchase.

  20th Century Fox lost my money to bootleggers by issuing a substandard DVD aimed at kids. While I don't have an issue with them targeting children rather than older anime fans, they needn't have made a dumbed down release to do so. The only explanation for making a fullscreen-only version is that they meant for this to be viewed by kids, who are customarily distracted by the black bars. This could easily have been a two-sided disc at little extra cost, and they would have sold probably twice as many copies. The dubbing/subbing debate is less crucial, but since the Japanese language track already exists and the script has already been translated into English, it would have been a negligible amount of work to add subtitles, and would have satisfied picky anime fans like myself.

  I will buy this movie from Fox when they decide to release the real version.
  
  

• Five-star film; shoddy DVD

  
  By A3JL2EPF4E6WS4 on 2002-12-29
  It's obvious that Fox rushed this DVD out to capitalize on the acclaim for "Spirited Away" (and to cash in before their video rights lapse), as this is the shoddiest treatment imaginable, a disgrace considering that "Totoro" is one of the greatest animated films ever made. The pan-and-scan transfer is the exact same one as on the VHS edition (released nine years ago!), and there are no improvements in image quality-- this is one of the fuzziest-looking DVD's I've seen, and it doesn't begin to do justice to the detail of Miyazaki's art. The lack of a widescreen transfer hurts the film greatly-- notice how, in the scene where Mei first meets Totoro, most of his head disappears off the left side of the screen when he yawns, or how the scene where Mei runs around picking flowers loses almost half the original image. The dubbing is perfectly adequate (though nowhere near as good as the job John Lasseter did on "Spirited Away"), but really, all anime DVD's ought to be dual-language-- those of us who prefer the original Japanese audio track should have the choice available.

  The only reason I'm giving this disc more than one star is because any edition of "Totoro" is better than not having "Totoro" available at all. But if you have a player capable of playing Region 2 discs, get the Studio Ghibli import instead; it includes both the English and Japanese audio tracks (the subtitles are really dubtitles, but that's a minor inconvenience), a beautiful widescreen transfer, and a second disc filled with extras. Until Disney gets the rights and issues a comparable Region 1 edition, the Japanese release is the only way to truly experience this wonderful film.
  
  

• Great Movie, But Disappointing DVD
  By A1LKYHAK5VGWTQ on 2003-01-31
  First, let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of "My Neighbor Totoro and the works of Miyazaki. I will let the other reviews speak to the merits of the film.

  Having said that, I could not have been more disappointed with this DVD. Here are some of my complaints:

  1. No letterbox! I want to see the whole movie in its full glory, not cut up to fit our television screen space. On the cut version is presented on the DVD. Maybe some people would prefer non-letterbox--if so, why not offer both?

  2. No Japanese! Another major flaw in the presentation is that there is no language option where you can listen to the original Japanese voices with subtitles. Considering this is a DVD, both options should have been offered.

  3. No extra materials! How about some extra content, including some pre-production drawings? Or some information regarding the original production.

  I am glad that this movie has been released in the U.S., but shame on Fox for producing such a shoddy product. I think consumers have come to expect certain features to be available on a DVD that is not available on VHS. The three things mentioned above are very simple things that would have tremendously improved the quality of the movie.

  I would recommend the movie highly to anyone who have not seen it. However, I have to rate the DVD only 3 stars because of the lack of content.
  
  

• only english sound, no japanese & caption
  By A37J9EYM0ZI1A6 on 2003-01-04
  Don't buy this
  2.0 stereo
  no caption
  no Japanese sound
  
  
• I returned it unopened
  By A2I57EHWNTFLZO on 2002-12-26
  Where is the Japanese? I have not been so dissapointed in a long time. It is absolutely disgusting that with all of the versatility of the DVD format Fox films would not include a Japanese track on this film. The movie was already in Japanese! There is no good reason whatsoever that they would remove the Japanese track. I am amazed and shocked. I advance ordered it because the whole point of DVD's is that the problem of not being able to find a copy of a foreign movie in the original language was supposed to have been solved years ago. I never would have possibly guessed that they would go to all of the trouble to remaster the movie for DVD and then step back into the stone age like this. This movie absolutely should have included both an English and a Japanese track. This is one of my favorite movies. I have been looking forward to this release for a long time. I am astonished. I am near to tears. Do not order this edition of this movie, please. Send Fox Films a message. Just order something else please.
  
  
• Great film - horrible DVD
  By AGFEC5HH3PI7Y on 2002-12-29
  The DVD is going back unopened - I'm not paying for this poorly executed product (but, it's Fox, so I'm not surprised that it is an inferior product). I was so ecstatic to see that Totoro was finally on DVD that I didn't look at the details. I am not slamming the movie - I adore it. But my reasons for the one star, expecially notable for film lovers:

  1) It isn't widescreen. How can any studio in this day and age offer only fullscreen? It wouldn't have been that hard to offer a two-sided disc, folks.

  2) An English dub is must for kids (and it should always be an option) - but adults, and young adults, should be able to expect, and should demand, the movie in its native language with proper, readable subtitles. I mean, honestly, the movie is already Close-Captioned, which means the text already exists. So does the Japanese language track. How hard would another five minutes of work have been, Fox? Or was paying that minimum wage worker for the extra time going to cut into the profit margin (of course, my returning this piece of junk will cut further into profit margin than that could ever do).

  3) No extras! There are absolutely no extras! Not even a trailer! Come on, Fox! This isn't brain surgery. This isn't even making cake from a boxed mix!

  I'll be more than happy to write a new review when a proper DVD release comes out. Until then, I'm going to have to look for a better version from Japan...
  
  

• Wonderful Movie, poor DVD
  By A17UXOGNEMH8YX on 2002-12-04
  I must concur with the other reviewers of this DVD... I love this movies, and indeed bought a DVD player that could play the Original Japanese DVD release. This 'Fox' release is a poor substitute for the original film. In specific this production is Pan & Scan, and while you might be able to follow the plot, the beauty of the Miyazaki film is lost. Indeed the trimming of the picture often makes the color composition off. Also the DVD seems to be a bit over saturated, and a little off to the red side. Other basic things lacking: captions (of any form - even English!), other languages (Spanish, French would have been nice - this is a region 1 DVD after all, likewise it would have been nice to have the Japanese - some kids out there are learning this language), and indeed any extras. Given all of this the DVD is quite poor, but the story is wonderful... So get the best copy you can afford and enjoy.
  
  
• A Wonderful Antidote to Disney
  By on 2000-05-22
  This is not only one of my favorite childrens films, it's one of my favorite films period. This movie is truly magical. It achieves what Disney movies never do -- a wonderful story without the need to resort to evil villains or wise-cracking side kicks. In fact, two of the things I find most striking and refreshing about My Neighbor Totoro is the use of images rather than dialogue to propel the plot and the slower, almost contemplative, pacing of the action. (This is one children's movie that won't blare from your TV or yammer at your children!) The first time I saw this movie I watched a friend's pirated VHS tape in Japanese. I was instantly mesmerized and was completely able to follow the story, despite the fact that I did not understand a word the characters said.

  And don't be put off because it is "japanese animation." This is not your father's japanese animation. The images of the tranquil countryside are sumptuous. Miazaki's attention to the little details of life, like a leaf floating in a stream or raindrops tapping an umbrella, evoke the simpler, purer times of childhood. The children's discovery of the totoro spirits in the old camphor tree recalls a time in every child's life when magic seems possible in the mundane world. As with other Miyazaki films, there is a thrilling flying sequence. However, this film is more appropriate for younger viewers than most of his other works, some of which are decidedly adult in nature despite the fact that they are animated.

  As the mother of a toddler, I really appreciate the refusal to rely on cliche villians to keep the plot moving. However, I should warn other parents considering this video that the conflicts used to keep the plot moving -- the children's discovery of and search for the dust bunny and totoro spirits and Mei's desire to see her sick mother in the hospital which causes her to lose her way in the countryside -- might be upsetting to the littlest viewers without some parental company and discussion. Otherwise, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie whether you're 2 or 200.
  
  

• Very Disappointed
  By A1OZUB5XEHJ5CE on 2002-12-13
  I am extremely disappointed that there is not even a Japanese language soundtrack. Totoro is a beautiful movie, but I wanted the DVD so that I could have the Japanese language version with subtitles.
  
  
• Movie=5 Stars, DVD= -5 Stars
  By on 2003-01-29
  Another fine example of anime butchering.
  Unremastered sound :(
  Pan and Scan ONLY :(
  No extra fetures :(
  No Japanese audio :(
  and many other things that is wrong in this DVD
  The movie is excellent. I was thrilled to be informed by Amazon that this is available in DVD, but after I've read the ratings, I did not bother buying this. Might as well buy the VHS if the quality is about the same.
  I don't mind paying extra if I'll get superior quality.
  With this DVD you get what you paid for... Save you money instead. This is good only for rentals.
  
  
• They had wings and I had none.
  By A1E94T4GW7O149 on 2004-03-18
  "My Neighbor Totoro," a film by Miyazaki Hayao is many things on many layers - one vital layer concerns loss and coping with the real possibility of loss. Satsuki, Mei and their father move to the countryside owing to the illness of their mother. As is common in Miyazaki films, the film centers on the concept of Shojo. According to Susan Napier, ""Shojo" literally means "little female" and originally referred to girls around 12 and 13. Over the last couple of decades, however, the term has become a shorthand for a certain kind of liminal identity between child and adult, characterized by a supposedly innocent eroticism based on sexual immaturity, a consumer culture of buying "cute" (kawaii) material goods, and a wistful privileging of a recent past of free-floating form of nostalgia" (Napier, Anime From Akira to Princess Mononoke 118). I will do 3 things in this review: (a) Picking up on Napier's shojo definition in terms of its liminality, (b) I will explore the space between supernatural vs. the fantastic, leading into, (c) an examination in terms of magical realism and the emancipation through flight.

  Residing in this liminal shojo space has really less to do with Mei but more to do with Satsuki. As the crush of the rather nervous young neighbor, we are introduced to Satsuki in a voyeuristic fashion. We "know" the young neighbor is somewhat smitten by her and yet she seems oblivious to the whole thing. This sort of "innocent eroticism" is played out - arguably to hint that Satsuki is well on her way to becoming a woman - but not yet. As Mei is left to her own devices, she chances on the bucket with the hole and eventually finds herself falling into the hole in the camphor tree - where she finds Totoro.

  The wonderful thing about Anime is that the transitions between the real, the surreal, the fantastic and even the magical realism is so seamless as to appear natural. As Mei, in a move reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland stumbles into a rabbit hole of sorts, finds herself in the realm of the unreal, or is it? When she is found in the forest by Satsuki - in a really imaginative move, Miyazaki keeps Satsuki in the liminal shojo space by making her see the things that only children see. We get this, in a real sense, when the cat bus is approaching both Totoro and Satsuki and she wonders how come no one else can see. Even if the father "believes" both Satsuki and Mei - he never really "sees" anything. Is the experience of Satsuki and Mei merely a hallucination or is it something supernatural. Once again, to borrow from Napier, something "supernatural" is still within the realm of the real. Taking the tack that the movie is about stress and children inventing realities to cope with such stress, Napier describes a facet of Miyazaki's work - that of the realm of the "enchanting" (Napier, Anime From Akira to Princess Mononoke 126-132).

  Back to the original premise of transcendence from that liminal characteristic of shojo... I find myself transported back to Milan Kundera who writes in "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting": "And then suddenly they were all singing the three or four simple notes again, speeding up the steps of their dance, fleeing rest and sleep, outstripping time, and filling their innocence with strength. Everyone was smiling, and Eluard leaned down to a girl he had his arm around and said, "A man possessed by peace never stops smiling." And she laughed and stamped the ground a little harder and rose a few inches above the pavement, pulling the others along with her, and before long not one of them was touching the ground, they were taking two steps in place and one step forward without touching the ground, yes, they were rising up over Wenceslaus Square, their ring the very image of a giant wreath taking flight, and I ran off after them down on the ground, I kept looking up at them, and they floated on, lifting first one leg, then the other, and down below - Prague with its cafes full of poets and its jails full of traitors, and in the crematorium they were just finishing off one Socialist representative and one surrealist, and the smoke climbed to the heavens like a good omen, and I heard Eluard's metallic voice intoning, "Love is at work it is tireless," and I ran after that voice through the streets in hope of keeping up with that wonderful wreath of bodies rising above the city, and I realized with anguish in my heart that they were flying like birds and I was falling like a stone, that they had wings and I would never have any."

  I intuit a sense of escapism in Miyazaki's work. I think there is something to Miyazaki's movies in terms of escape - from the everyday to a liberating space. On the subject of liberation... it is common to see flight in Miyazaki. "Laputa" we see nothing but flying. In "Kiki's Delivery Service," it is arguably learning to fly that liberates Kiki. Miyazaki's oeuvre is filled with imagery of flight - Tonari no Totoro is no exception. To transcend being human, being a child, as Kiki escapes her liminal status as shojo and into womanhood so does Satsuki as she and Mei take flight in the cat bus. And I "realized with anguish in my heart that they were flying like birds and I was falling like a stone, that they had wings and I would never have any."

  Miguel Llora
  
  

• Animee masterpiece...Terrible DVD, buy the video.
  By A1OB5SKFDZVKUD on 2003-04-25
  I couldn't wait for My Neighbor Totoro to be released on DVD. When I finally received the DVD, what a disappointment. Its full screen (pan&scan) and the audio is sub par. Fox rushed this out only to capitalize off of Spirited Away's success. Its basically the Videotape edition transfered to disc. Anyone who appreciates the advantages of viewing DVDs and the artistic genius of Miyazaki will be greatly let down. Disney has done a beautiful job on Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky. I only hope Fox will rerelease a better edition of this masterpiece.
  
  
• Totororrific!
  By A9998RE3AEA95 on 2001-06-29
  This is an excellent childhood story unrivaled by any since "Peter Pan". The plot involves Satsuke, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, moving into the country with her father and younger sister Mei, where she discovers a child's realm of wonder and make-believe running in parallel to the adults' mundane everyday existence. The family's rickety cottage is filled with easily frightened dust bunnies, and deep within the tangle of roots and branches, in a safe hiding place only a child can access, Totoro, a benign forest creature, makes its lair.

  The story is a real jewel, simply, elegantly told. The art is of extremely high quality, excellently detailed, bright and clean. The characters are especially well-depicted, complete with expressive body language and realistically animated. In part because of the excellent dub, they are all sympathetic and deeply human, instantly recognizable as real people around us.

  Especially evocative is the portrayal of the children's make-believe world, full of things and places that are there only if you believe in them, like the giant Totoro and his entourage of two tiny, roly-poly furballs, and the magnificent "cat-bus" with great shining eyes and two mice announcing the next stop - the exact place you want to go.

  A fantastic, enchanting examination of a child's mentality, that is also a mainstay family film.
  
  

• Another masterpiece by the world's greatest animator
  By A16QODENBJVUI1 on 2003-12-27
  I have been a huge Miyazaki fan for nearly twenty years now, but I am ashamed to admit that I have only now seen MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO for the first time. The reason is a good one, as reasons go: it was the last important film by Miyazaki that I had not yet seen, and I was saving it for a special occasion. I love seeing again films that I have loved the first time through, but there is always a special magic to seeing a film for the first time. Unfortunately, I now no longer have any Miyazaki films to see that I haven't already seen (at least until he finishes his work-in-progress, which has been given the tentative English title HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE). Fortunately, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO was worth the weight.

  How does this film compare with Miyazaki's finest films? This is a hard question, because he has a large number clustered at the top, all of them excellent. I would be hard pressed to say this was better or worse than any of a number of others. However, each film is distinguished from the others by the mood and tone of the film. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO may be the gentlest and most peaceful of all his films. True, the girls have moved to the countryside with their father because their mother is in a nearby hospital recovering from a rather vague illness, and the forest is haunted, but the illness is never perceived as especially worrisome (except near the end, when a slight cold prevents her making a brief visit home, provoking a crisis with her daughters), and the spirits in the forest are remarkably benign and benevolent. There is nothing like the ecological apocalypse in THE PRINCESS MONONOKE and NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, or the parents who have been transformed into swine or threatening spirits of SPIRITED AWAY, or the armed conflict in CASTLE IN THE SKY. The world in this film is a loving world, all the way down to a remarkable creature that is a cross between Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat and a school bus (literally).

  Miyazaki's animation is truly in a league of its own, and I mean that as strongly as possible. It has been decades since the Disney studios were capable of a fraction of the more challenging sequences that Miyazaki seemingly animates with ease. For instance, the wind and storm the first night the children spend in their new home display effects that Disney hasn't attempted since the more marvelous scenes in BAMBI. The way the wind is portrayed as moving through the tops of the trees, the hint of spraying mist, the manner in which the wind moves like a wave over the grass, the shuttering of the house under the assault of the air, are all things of remarkable artistry. Even more remarkable is that after this brief display of mastery, Miyazaki doesn't feel the need to build a huge storm with rain and lightening, but has the wind subside and give way to brilliant white clouds sailing across a moonlit and starry black sky.

  Of all Miyazaki's extraordinary gifts as an animator and a storyteller, his greatest virtue might be his patience, and this is something he holds in common with many of the Japanese animators. American animated films are almost always frenetic affairs, in a great rush to fill the screen with activity, and in a hurry to get to the next part of the story. American animated films seem to be more interested in where they are going than in how they are getting there, while for Miyazaki the journey is the far more important part of the film. Certainly one reason for this is the distrust of the American film industry of the patience of the viewers, as if they are in abject terror of small children squirming in their seats if the story doesn't get a move on. Miyazaki, on the other hand, respects his viewers, and is confident that they won't give up on a film simply because the story moves at a steady pace. In MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, one of the sisters will begin to enter a room, look from one side to the other, take a step, look around again, and gradually and slowly discover what is inside. In many American films, a child would simply explode into the room and that would be it. As a result, every moment of the film becomes a discovery of marvelous and wonderful things.

  I would say that this is a very special film by a very special filmmaker, except for the fact that for Hayao Miyazaki special seems to be the norm.
  
  

• Beware of this version
  By on 2002-12-03
  As promised, this DVD contains contents that exactly match the previous VHS release by this studio; namely Pan & Scan only, English dub only, no extras. The film is wonderful, and surely deserves to be presented as Miyazaki intended it to be seen, not cut up. Those of us who want to see that will be disappointed with this disk.
  
  
• What's the deal?
  By on 2002-12-08
  I want to thank the reviewers who warned against this version on the grounds that it offers nothing over the VHS version. If you are an adult who loves the beauty of Miyazaki's films, you'll be disappointed by the unnatural English sound track of poorly translated Japanese dialogue and cutsified kiddie voices that sound like an amateur version of Saturday morning Smurfs. (the ONLY Miyazaki movie that recieved professional treatment in the English version was Princess Mononoke - 5 STARS!!)
  For those of you that have REGION CODE FREE decks (or computers with software like "region free" that kills the code), I recommend buying the films from the Japan Amazon site.... Although slightly more expensive, ALL DVDs contain English subtitles and often they have the goofy soundtracks as well. They are also widescreen- not letterbox. Another plus is you don't have to wait - They're all available Now - even the newest Sento Chihiro no Kamikakushi-"spirited away", which includes English Subtitles)
  Make no mistake. Miyazaki's movies are NOT DISNEY. Miyazaki does not paint his villains and heroes in black and white. Just as in real life, he shows that there is no such thing as pure good- or pure evil. Often the scariest character in his story becomes a subtle hero.
  In short, I would recommend Miyazaki's movies 100 percent. However, for some reason, his best work is not being presented to the foreign consumers in its full glory.
  
  
• Great movie; but don't buy it (yet)!
  By A4SVSFIPZNE59 on 2004-02-27
  This is one of the most heartwarming films of director Hayao Miyazaki's collection. I have seen practically all of Miyazaki's movies, and I love every one of them. I'd highly recommend this movie to anyone. However, if you want to experience this movie as it was intended to be seen, please wait for a better DVD release. This DVD, by Fox, is missing the Japanese language track (in order to watch it subtitled), and it is full-screen only, meaning the image has been cropped. Disney is set to re-release this movie, perhaps in 2005, so do yourself a favor and wait until then. In the meantime, there's nothing wrong with renting this version of Totoro!
  
  
• Great Movie
  By on 2004-12-23
  I have read tons of these reviews. But i have the dvd version and it is one of my favorite movies ever. Everybody keeps saying they hate it because its not in japanese. Maybe its because we are in an english speaking nation. And who cares if it is fullscreen. There were no extra features but what do you expect it is an old movie. And it is only 5-10 dollars. You buy it for the movie not the features. As for the movie itself it was great i loved it. It was very imaginative. And the music was great too. Especially the beginning and ending song. Fox put this movie into english so that U.S. children could enjoy it in their own language without having to read subtitles. I reccomend to anybody with a heart and imagination. What 3 year old kid can speak or even understand japanese unless it is their language already.
  
  
• Pretty is as pretty does
  By A32Q70982KSQOI on 2006-04-04
  My daughter and I have been watching My Neighbor Totoro for years. We loved it, and even though we've seen it about a million times I have yet to feel like I have watched it too much. I love just about everything Studio Ghibli has put out. I am very happy that I have the old Fox version. It will continue to be the version watched in my home since it has the dignity that I believe the original My Neighbor Totoro has. Put more bluntly, you'll get the Fox version from my cold dead hands.
  
  This Disney dub is very disappointing.
  
  The first thing that I've noticed is how much of the reverence for nature has been stripped out. It's lost most of the magical beauty that was in it. The Fox version may not be as visually stunning, but the translation is so much better, as is the voice acting. This dub took me back to the bad old days of dubs when the lip movement did not even come close to the voice over. It's also been very Americanized. One example would be when Mei finds the bottomless bucket and calls it "stupid", as if it were now useless. In the Fox version she simply says "It has no bottom!" in wonder. Children can find so many different uses for things most adults can not. It's part of the wonder of childhood, and that wonder is normally very well expressed in Studio Ghibli films. In hearing the translation differences between the Fox version and the Disney version I wonder how badly mangled other Disney dubbed versions of Ghibli movies are.
  
  My daughter pointed out each and every time when something was different. In our family we have used the illustration of when Satsuki calls Mei "stupid" for why we never should call people stupid. In the Disney version, that lesson is totally gone. The Disney version also dumbs down the English vocabulary. In the Fox version the word "pollywogs" is used rather than "tadpoles" in the water. It's an old term for tadpoles and I was just plain ecstatic about the "big words". I love in Kiki's Delivery Service that the word "dirigible" was used rather than "blimp". Neither of these words are too hard for children to learn or say. My daughter was two when we first viewed each of those films and saying both words and knew what they meant! If you asked her if she wanted to see a tadpole she'd look at you blankly, but ask her if she wanted to see a pollywog she would light up!
  
  The "special features" on the Disney DVD don't make up the cost of this film. The features amount to one whole DVD with the original story boards set to the *new* dubbing, a "behind the scenes" of the recording of the Disney dubbing, and an un-restored trailer for the movie. Oh, there are ads too. I do so love to buy ads.
  
  
• Very Nice Story and Beautiful Animation
  By A3MAZM138KFVOW on 2000-01-22
  Japanese animated feature about two young girls who meet a supernatural creature, or spirit, named "Totoro." Director Miyazaki's talents shine in this movie with beautiful animation and simple pleasures. The story is set in the late 1950's when a college professor moves to the country with his two daughters who are approximately five and eight years of age. The family is happy for the most part, but their mother is confined to a hospital for an illness not identified in the story. The girls are enchanted with their new home, an old spacious house situated in the country, surrounded by farms and forests. Unusual events begin to take place with mysterious little creatures running around the house and strange winds and noises outside the house at night. Eventually the girls discover Totoro, a large mythical creature who looks like a cross between a bear and rabbit; he's big! Mei, the youngest of the two girls, meets him first and she's the one who names him "Totoro." Satsuki, the older sister, meets Totoro later in the film while waiting for her father at a lonely bus-stop during an evening rainstorm, which is probably the most enjoyable scene in the movie. With Totoro are his two little brothers, miniature versions of himself, and a giant cat who looks like a bus. Totoro and the giant Catbus come to the rescue when Mei is lost in the country after running off in anguish to look for her mother at the hospital, and Satsuki is in dispair trying to find her sister. The story is simple and it's enchanting. Disney fans may love it or hate it for being a different form of animation and story-telling. I personally enjoy it very much because it's an original story and it's a nice break from American animated features that always seem to have inanimate objects dancing around and singing to a Hollywood soundtrack. The American-released VHS version has an english-dubbed voice-track that is pretty well done, unfortunately it is not letter-boxed and the music soundtrack has been muffled for whatever reason. The original Japanese version is letter-boxed, providing Miyzaki's original vision, which is quite good, and the instrumental soundtrack is at full-strength, which adds a lot to the movie. Unfortunately there are no english subtitles available. Hopefully a DVD release will give American customers the best of both versions soon.
  
  
• not enough stars for this movie
  By AGPD9DMD8TYE4 on 1999-10-26
  As parents, we've been buying lot of Disney animated movies for our kids (9 and 2 year old). Then one day we saw this cute litle creature on the cover of this Japanese video cover, I decided to buy it and what an investment that was. From that momemnt on we fell in love with every single charecter of the movie, yes, there is no need for a villain in this movie, no bad guys, and the movie still great, Disney should take note of this. Totoro came into our family life such as a fresh breeze and gave us a total new look on kid's movie, more magical than any Disneyesque stuffs we saw in the past. The story was so original, the rural Japan backgound and the school scene reminded me Viet Nam of my youth ( yes , Viet Nam, when there was no fighting nearby). I wept when the kids cried and laughed throghuout the movie, specially my 2 year old. She must watch it every night before she can sleep.
  
  
• Stunning film but poor mastering............
  By AHV9Z1EDYO5WK on 2003-01-07
  I saw this for the first time recently, what a warm and truly wonderful film. But when I went to find it on DVD I was appalled to find it only in pan-and-scan(!)

  I'm shaking my head that the studio feels they need to dumb down the format to appeal to preschoolers and their babysitters. I can hear the Totoro crying as I write...

  So what did I do? I went to Ebay and found the all-region Japanese pressing, in letterbox, with both English and Japanese audio. Don't encourage the studios by buying their full-screen monstrosities (sorry Amazon).
  
  

• Disney DVD: Letterboxed with original Japanese soundtrack
  By A42GFMF12V7XR on 2005-09-07
  Forget the old FOX VIDEO DVD release (cropped & dubbed) look for this new upcoming Disney DVD release. Here is their press info:
  
  February 2006: 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced), Dolby Digital 2.0; 2-Disc Special Edition,
  Original Japanese audio & new English dub, storyboards, behind-the-scenes.
  
  
• Brilliant movie, sub-par DVD.
  By A102NJUNNCIB4M on 2003-03-27
  I can't add anything to the other reviews here about the movie itself. Yes, it's really that good. Possibly even better. As the old saying goes: if you have a child, are a child, or ever were a child, you need to see this.

  I can, unfortunatly, say a few less than positive things about the DVD that Fox/FHE has put together here, and I have to dock a star here, and considered docking more. It's excusable that this is a no-extras release: it's bargain-priced, and I'm sure that the age of the film and the language barrier would make assembling a supplements package difficult. It is NOT excusable that the film is presented ONLY in pan-and-scan format, with ONLY the (admittedly good) English-language soundtrack. This film is a work of art, and the only (legal) way to see it right now in the US is in a form that's been vandalized, and that's a pity.

  That said...buy it anyway. Your kids won't notice the difference, and hopefully if this disc sells well someone at Fox will notice and put together a proper edition for the enthusiasts.
  
  

• Magical, very special, superb animation
  By A3QE7CLIXOR9II on 1998-10-08
  I was introduced to the magical animation of Hiyao Miyazaki through "Kiki's Delivery Service". This is just as good, with a more Japanese setting than the European-looking "Kiki", alhough my one (tiny and insignificant) complaint -- or really, just a question: Why do many characters LOOK european - round eyes and red or brown hair - when the setting is clearly in Japan? However, this takes nothing away from the chance to experience a master animator working at the very peak of his form, in a superb, naturalistic style that makes most contemporary animation look harsh, "cutesy", and talks down to children. The sensitive well developed story would fascinate children of all ages, as well as compell the interest of adults. It's a shame that this breathtaking film cannot be enjoyed on the big screen, but do NOT miss the opportunity to own your own video copy to view again and again! (P.S. I agree with other readers that Totoro toys would be just wonderful, and picture books of both Kiki and Totoro for young readers would be a marvellous addition to any child's library!) In an era of glitsy computer animation, this film is a stand-out in terms of both it's intelligent story and breathtaking, painterly art...a masterpiece. END
  
  
• good movie, bad DVD
  By A222K6GVT4TZ5Q on 2002-12-29
  When I saw the US premiere of Spirited Away I was thrilled to hear the Gibli studio representative tell us that all of Miyazaki's movies would be released in the US within the next two years.

  Disney studios (since they apparently feel the need to control all feature length animation in the US) was to handle the distribution. Apparently, like the fable goes, once they had it they didn't want it anymore and sold it to Fox to do with what they would.

  What they have done, and this won't be news if you've read some of the other reviews here, is to release a very inexpensive product, but you get what you pay for.

  Specifically, pan and scan instead of widescreen and English dub only.

  If you are looking for a nice movie for children, and you are not familiar with Miyazaki's work, this version should be OK.

  To most adults my advice is to get yourself to your nearest search engine and find yourself a widescreen version with a Japanese soundtrack and English subtitles.
  
  

• Why did they have to mess w/ a good thing? Buyer Beware!
  By AJ9XEOP1PAW02 on 2006-01-25
  I am the biggest fan of both Disney and Hayao Miyazaki so I really am struggling with writing this bad review but hey you people have to know before you buy. This version of Totoro really stinks!!!! Almost to the point of ruining the entire film for me. I couldn't suffer through it when the movie premiered on TCM. Let me explain there was a previoulsy released edition that was put out by Fox which is the best. The english dubbing on the Disney version is horrific. The characters are so off from the original release. Please if you are considering adding this dvd to your collection go with the original fox edition. You are missing out on so much of the movie if you only see this Lame version put out by Disney. I'm sorry to be harsh but Disney really let us down with this english dubbed version of Totoro.....
  
  

• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Spirited Away
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Castle in the Sky