Good Morning Everyone!
For Pat and Frank.
Coming to you live from sunny California and suffering from a 3-hour sickness. Sleep is good. Unfortunately for some, sleep is optional. Falling into the optional category, I never thought 3 hours would carry over so many years. But that “so many” is only a few compared to the previous years when I was “3-hours” free. Perhaps in another decade my condition would finally subside. Or perhaps I will become so acquainted with my condition that within one-year’s time I would no longer consider it a condition, rather a means for which to get rest…Perhaps.
Siempre que te pregunto
Que cuándo cómo y dónde
Tú siempre me respondes
Quizás, quizás, quizás
Y así pasan los días
Y yo desesperado
Y tú, tú, contestando
Quizás, quizás, quizás
Before I phantom the idea of sleeping, tonight we continue our journey through Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki Collection 32.
Disc 6: My Neighbor Totoro, Tonari no Totoro, となりのトトロ
Writer and Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Released: April 16, 1988 (exactly 3 days until the release-date anniversary)
Totoro is everywhere! Move over Mickey. Totoro is the Japanese version of Winnie-the-Pooh. Apart from cameos in other Miyazaki films and the Studio Ghibli logo, Totoro has appeared in Toy Story 3 (stuffed doll) and has been given homage on a couple of Comedy Central Cartoons. With a brief introduction, now introducing our neighbor: Totoro.
Hey, let’s go! Hey, let’s go!
I’m happy as can be
Let’s go walking, you and me
Ready, set, come on, let’s go!
Over the hill, across the field
Through the tunnel we’ll go
We’ll run across the bridge
And down the bumpy gravel road
Creep beneath the spider’s web
Ready, set, let’s go!
The Kusakabe family is moving to an old rural home to be closer to the hospital where their mother is being treated for an unknown sickness. Upon arriving at the house, the two daughters, Satsuki and Mei inspect every inch of the small home, finding soot sprites (little black balls of soot…the first incarnation of the Spirited Away coal-throwing soot balls). The grandmother, newly arrived and visiting, tells the girls that the soot balls are soot spirits and that they will leave when once the family is comfortable in the new home: comfort which does not take long.
And if I ever made U cry
All I have 2 do is think about it and I just wanna die
I just wanna break down and die, die, die, die
How I’d ever make it by without U, baby
I don’t know, I hope I never have 2 try, yeah
Oh, listen 2 me
(Ooh my) Friend, lover, sister, mother, wife
(My sweet, sweet friend, lover, sister, mother, wife)
Air, food, water, love of my life
Satsuki leaves for school, thus leaving Mei to play alone. While picking up acorns, she sees a rabbit-like creature (later to be deemed as a Totoro). She chases the creature around, it runs under the house, loses Mei for a bit, only to be seen again with a slightly bigger, grey creature. Mei again, chases both, following them into a cubbyhole nested in a huge tree where she finds a giant creature in slumber. Climbing up onto the sleeping creature’s chest, Mei begins to awaken the giant. (If you watch South Park, you know where Matt and Trey got their inspiration from for Cartman and Cthulhu). Cuteness ensues, and while asking the creature’s name, the creature yawns and Mei interprets the yawn as Totoro. Falling asleep, Mei is found resting in the cubbyhole by Satsuki.
Call Mr Goodnight
He’ll make U feel alright
Make U throw Ur head back and holla
So nice, so nice
Better not tell Ur girlfriend
U can try with all Ur might
Just can’t keep a secret
‘Bout goodnight, goodnight
The next day, was a rainy day. (That reminds me, they are given an umbrella by young boy, Kanta, who is later seen playing in his room in his underwear like all kids do when it rains. But most memorable, as the family was moving in, Kanta was sent to give them a welcoming gift by his grandmother. He gives the gift with minimal words, runs out of the house and from a distance says, “Your house is haunted,” runs away…classic). Waiting for their father’s bus, Mei falls asleep and is being carried on Satsuki’s back. As it gets dark, the giant Totoro appears standing next to Satsuki, wearing a single leaf on his head (because it’s raining) apparently waiting for a bus also. Satsuki offers the Totoro an umbrella she brought for her father and in return the delighted Totoro gives Satsuki seeds. In the distance a bus appears: a giant catbus. Totoro enters the catbus, which is followed by the father’s bus.
Sanjikan mo matte ita no yo
Watashi neko to issho ni
Sono toki denwa no beru ga
Watashi neko mitai ni shabetta
Terebi no volume sagete
Watashi uso mitai na koe de
Twiggy no mini skirt de
Twiggy mitai na pose de
Twiggy no mini skirt de
Twiggy mitai ni yassepochi no watashi
The next day, the girls plant the seeds. Later that evening the three Totoro do a ceremony where the seeds were planted, the girls join in and a giant tree grows within minutes. Totoro then flies the girls and his smaller compatriots to the top of the tree.
See I picks my friends like I pick my fruit
My Ganny told me that when I was only a youth
I don’t go ’round trying to be what I’m not
I don’t waste my time trying to get what you got
I work at pleasin’ me cause I can’t please you
And that’s why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree
Doo wee doo wee do wee
The next day, Satsuki receives an urgent phone call from their mother. Running to the nearest phone, Satsuki finds out that their mother will have to postpone a planned visit as a setback from her treatment. Worried that her mother may die, Satsuki is distraught. From her anxiety, she yells at Mei and storms away. Mei, walks home, thinking that healthy food will help cure her mother. With an ear of corn in her hand, Mei, alone, begins to walk to the hospital.
I go out walking, after midnight
Out in the moonlight
Just like we used to do
I’m always walking, after midnight
Searching for you
I walk for miles, along the hyihway
Well that’s just my way
Of saying I love you
I’m always walking after midnight
Searching for you
I stop to see a weeping willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he’s crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I’m lonesome as I can be
Her disappearance alarms the neighborhood causing all to search for Mei. Satsuki goes to the giant tree and asks Totoro for help. Neighborly as Totoro is, he summons the catbus which takes her where Mei is sitting. With Mei safe, the catbus takes the girl to the hospital where their mother is. Perched on a tree, they overhear the conversation between their father, who is already there and mother. Their mother expresses her worry for her daughters and vows to get healthy. The girls leave the ear of corn on the windowsill and the parents find it as the catbus whisks the girls back home.
Totoro, Totoro, Totoro, Totoro,
Someone stealthily
Buries nuts in the path.
When a tiny sprout grows,
[You’ll find] a secret password
The passport to the forest.
A wonderful adventure begins.
General Comments: My Neighbor Totoro is a great movie. There have been comparison made about Panda! Go, Panda! with Totoro, in that the first was a precursor to the latter. If that is the case, then Totoro has every minused element from Panda! Go, Panda! and then some. The family element is stronger in Totoro. The comedy and general innocence is more profound. Nothing is too farstretched. What the viewer is presented with is a charming, warming 3rd person view of two children, the realization of life (and the opposite part associated with it), settling with the harder edges of life and the usefulness of imagination to live life.
Until next time, stay tuned!
oflittleimportance 