The last time I watched Totoro was years ago and I’m surprised by how much of the movie I had forgotten about. There’s Totoro + the mini Totoros and then the kind of unsettling Catbus but for some reason most of the plot just slipped my mind…
One of the things I find fascinating about the slice-of-life genre is how there isn’t much plot yet it’s still a consistently enjoyable hour and a half. A good chunk of it focused on Mei getting lost and I thought it was really nice how the whole village? town? came together to help search even though they had just moved in only recently.
I also really liked how open-minded the adults were when interacting with the children. For most of the movie you’re kind of left wondering if the kids just have really active imaginations but then the corn-on-the-windowsill just catches you a little off guard. Also, Kanta’s sailor cap was cool.
Overall this was a nice, (mostly) relaxing movie for a stressful semifinals week and I enjoyed it a lot.
I have a similar opinion of feeling like the movie is a classic. I watched the film when I was younger with my parents and I feel like I can appreciate the film more now since I am older and I can pick up on small details in the movie. Watching the movie back, there were also some scenes I didn’t remember from when I was younger.