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My Neighbor Totoro (Full Screen Edition) Actors: Noriko Hidaka, Hitoshi Takagi Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Format: Animated, Color Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Running Time: 87 minutes Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-12-03 Buy from Amazon |
 "scared"ok let me get this outta the way I love this film, but the thing that worries me is who is publishing it. A few years back Fox released Totoro on DVD with a crappy transfer, I mean it looks like they just scanned it into the machine and let it go without even doing mandatory touch-ups to it... perhaps that could be a good thing in retrospect compared to who has the rights now. A poor transfer does not blemish a masterpiece, even though the colors are bland and sometimes off, the heart is not lost. Anywho let me get to my point. Disney currently holds the right to release special edition and while many people have been anticipating the release, you do realize this is the company who in the 80's rejected publishing back to the future because of the kiss between marty and loriene (if you don't know what i'm talking go watch back to the future). This is the company who cut out a smoking texan in the Olypus movie segment from it's own fantasia DVD! Don't even get me started on the Disney Radio stuff, I remember I rented some disney video (I think it was either Little mermaid II or fun and fancy free. ((make fun of me and i'll sick a legion of girl scouts on you and by the time there through with you you'll be out about a dozen or so thousand dollars and be stuck with a life-time supply of moderatly over-priced cookies.))) and I was skimming over the extras when I saw this Mambo no.5 remake that made me wince very cruelly, it replaced all the girls names with Disney characters, and believe me it is as stupid as it sounds. The point is is disneys drastic standards scare me a bit because if you recall the part where mei and satsuki are bathing with there father... well this may not be appropriate in the eyes of a certain little mouse... come on this is Disney! I have a bit of a worry that they might cut that scene and that would really suck, I mean come on they turned down the publishing rights to a great movie just because of a little kiss, well anywho you can connect the dots yourself and wait for the DVD, i just hope our furry little friend comes in with a big roar and not full of bullet holes... (wow what a crappy analogy i can't believe i could not think of anything better! I mean on a scale of 1-10 on the crap factor that analogy is 11, geez I mean it really sucks... sucks like a vacume... my god I don't even know how to spell vacume... i'll stop now) Note: Holy merciful ****!!! The release date is 2010, WTF are they smokin I want this now!!! now damn it... Disney I like your movies, but I don't like you, my day will come and you will burn, burn like the setting sun on a midsummersday! Update: Now amazon has the date listed as TBA under avaliabity instead of 2010 as before, I guess they didn't want to scare off Pre-orders, but strangley enough if you look lower at the specifics of the DVD the release date is listed as January 1, 2010... the plot thickens. "One of the Best Animated Flicks I have Seen..."I don't know why I decided to get this movie. To say that I rented it on a whim would even be understatement. In fact, this movie was prehaps my most random find ever, and what a find it was. Mei, age 4, and Satsuki, age 8, are two (very) energetic girls. They just moved out to the country to live in a rickity old house, without a telephone, under a camphor tree. Some people said that the house was haunted, but really, a lot of black soot just hang around there (very similar to the soot in Spirited Away). The girls' mother is in a hospital (presumably with spinal tuberculosis) and their loving father, a professor (I presume), lives with them. Mei meets a troll. Now, this ain't your big ugly Lord of the Rings troll or the mean, sly under-the-bridge troll: this is Totoro- the single coolest creature to ever be painted onto the silver screen. He is adorable, yes freaking adorable, but tough looking, and his tail, oh man, what a tail. It is difficult to transcribe into words how much I love Totoro and want him to be my neigbor. The animation is amazing. Nothing short of it. Just like in Spirited Away, some of the paintings look like very beautiful nature photographs. Totoro looks awesome. The girls' emotions are captured perfectly with the pen and easel. Now, typically, I hate kids in movies. They whine complain and say stupid things or act more mature than the adults. These children do neither. They act like real kids. They have real emotions and real problems. They have vibrant imaginations, but realistic problems. In other words, no movie I have ever seen before, better portrayed children. Get this movie. "Totoro = love"Leaving questions of fidelity to the original aside, there is simply no comparison to this film for the amount of delight and wonder it has brought into my 3-year-old son's life. We're lucky enough to live next to a 100-acre wood and our walks in it are enhanced by his hopes of seeing a "Totoro" under every tree. Miyazaki-san is unarguably the greatest genius working in children's animation today, and his visions are both sweet and richly detailed about the complicated relationships between humans and nature, light and dark, love and fear. Don't hesitate to enjoy this film in whatever format you can find. There are some loud noises, but otherwise it's totally suitable for small children. Kids over 4 or 5 might feel some concern for Satsuki's fears about her mother, but those are put into a warm and reassuring context. The Catbus is, without a doubt, the single most enchanting creation in animation. "A great family movie"This movie is just simply too great to describe in words. It combines simplicity and elegance to form a beautiful movie for children, teens, and even adults. This movie contains no violence seen in many other modern anime-based movies, and is just plain enjoyable to watch. It opens up the imagination of kids and is definitely a must-watch for everyone in the family. However, I must say that the original is MUCH better than the DVD remake, so if you can get your hands on the original, it'll be great and worth the effort. "Tonari no Totoro!"Fun to watch, entertaining, and completely creative. These are only three of the many reasons I adore Studio Ghibli productions. I am waiting for the 2-disc special editon because this DVD does not include the Japanese language track. With Anime, I watch it first in English to get the basic plot and then I watch it in Japanese with the subtitles because it adds much more clarity to the story line. The DVD is in full screen (yuck) and the bonus features are bogus. But the movie is warm hearted and very clever. Who could ever think of a catbus other than Miyazaki? Honestly, I think this guy's more creative than Walt Disney himself. But I still respect Disney because they have done an excellent job (so far) with Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky. |
