In the Japanese animated film “My Neighbor Totoro” tells a story about a family of four. The father is raising two young girls, four year old Mei, nine year old Satsuki who are having to coping with the absence of their mother who is sick in the hospital. Because of the sickness of their mother the family moves to a house in the country close to where there mother is in the hospital. New to their environment the two girls seem very close as they start to discover their new home and the wooded area behind their back yard. Throughout the whole film you could see how the children shelter their fears of the real world in many ways.

            Without the presence of their mother you can see how nine year old Satsuki has to grow up a little quicker, from cooking for the family to cleaning around the house, to watching over her little sister. That is a lot for a nine year old to go through and still be a child is a bit of a challenge.  Meanwhile the little sister Mei starts to explore and wonder off into the back wooded area. It’s there were she first meets Totoro, were he is sleeping on his back. Totoro looks like a cross between a cat, raccoon and kind of like a Pokémon. 

            One part of the movie it seemed that as if everything hit Satsuki all at once. She was with granny and she just started crying. It seemed to me that she finally realized that her mother is very sick and could possibly die. So granny was trying to comfort her and when this happened Mei saw this and got worried to. At this point I believe that Satsuki did more than just be an older sister. I believe was kind of the rock of the family, she had to be strong and have to deal with a great deal of responsibilities.

            By Mei running away to me it seemed like she didn’t want to grow up, so she needed to somehow find a shelter for her fears of life and the adult world. Every time Mei would go to the woods and play with Tototo it seemed like it was her way of escaping from all the troubles and fears of life. The funny thing about when Totoro was around the two girls I would always wonder why any of the adults couldn’t see him. But that’s why I believe that it was one way for the two girls to escape reality. Because the girls saw Totoro together it made their bond very strong.

            Overall I would have to say that it was a good movie, a bit different from the movies I see. There is no violence, no fighting, no drugs just an overall good movie with good morals in the time it was written. Thou out the movie there was parts in the movie that in the western culture would not approve of; like the bathing scene, also when Mei would just wonder off by herself. The movie does make you stop and think if this is how things use to be in the early days.