My Neighbor Totoro

A little over a year ago I started a certain ginormous "project." I'm watching (and, therefor, my wife is watching) everything on the Internet Movie Database's list of the Top 250 movies. Or at least all of them that are readily available on video. So far, we're up to around the mid-150's.

My first priority when it comes to choosing which movies to post about, is to post about movies I've just seen. My second priority, at least for a while, is getting this blog caught up on The List. So, starting with the bottom (or, rather, what was on the bottom at the time I started watching The List):

Title: Tonari no Totoro
Year: 1988 (Japan), 1993 (US)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: (English version) Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tim Daly; (Japanese version) Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Distinctions: formerly on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: a magical forest spirit helps two little girls whose mother is ill
How I saw it: on video, a number of times (have on DVD)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for pacing and music) c. 3.3/4 3.4/4 (Very good).

One of my favorite movies. It's very fun, and emotionally strong for a children's movie. The acting by the animators is exceptional. The pacing gets a little slow sometimes, at least after having seen it five or six times. I imagine if I'd only seen it once the suspense would more than compensate. The incidental music is good, but it has a (delightfully) obnoxious theme song which I just have to take off points for.