Poster © Toho. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
|
GenreAdventure, Animation & Comedy
RatedNot Rated
Runtime1 hr 26 mins
ReleasedApril 16, 1988
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorHayao Miyazaki
StarringNoriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Hitoshi Takagi
|
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| My Neighbor Totoro's Details | |
| Genre | Adventure, Animation & Comedy |
| Rated | Not Rated |
| Released | 04/16/1988 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 26 mins |
| Budget | Not reported |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| My Neighbor Totoro's Interests | |
| General | Camphor trees, soot sprites, acorns, rainy bus stops, a bus that is also a cat. |
| Music | Joe Hisaishi. The theme song will live in your head rent free forever. |
| Movies | Kiki's Delivery Service (1989). Miyazaki's next one, with a broom and a black cat. |
| Television | Bluey. Two sisters, endless imagination, a very good dad. |
| Heroes | Totoro. So iconic he became the Studio Ghibli logo. |
| My Neighbor Totoro's Crew | |
| Director | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Writers | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Producers | Toru Hara |
| Cinematography | Hisao Shirai |
| Music | Joe Hisaishi |
| Edited By | Takeshi Seyama |
| Production | Studio Ghibli |
| Distributed By | Toho |
The big action scene in My Neighbor Totoro is two kids waiting for a bus in the rain, and it’s more thrilling than most car chases. Honest knock first: there’s barely a plot. Satsuki and Mei move to the country, explore, worry about their mom, meet an enormous fluffy forest spirit and mostly just live. If your kid needs a villain to stay awake, this won’t do it. Everybody else gets 86 minutes of pure good feeling. Totoro doesn’t talk, he roars and grins and discovers umbrellas, and that’s all he needs to do. Soot sprites skittering into corners, the giant camphor tree, the Catbus with its glowing eyes: Hayao Miyazaki makes a creaky old house feel like the safest place on Earth. Mei is the most accurate little kid ever animated. It made $32.1 million worldwide and somehow grew way bigger than that number. A 9.5 because it’s a movie about being a kid that never talks down to kids. $629 says you check your bus stop for a giant fluffy neighbor next time it rains.
What works: Totoro discovering an umbrella, the soot sprites, the Catbus, and two sisters who feel completely real.
What doesn’t: There’s barely any plot or conflict, so kids raised on fast cartoons might wander off before the Catbus shows up.
Who it’s for: Families with little kids, and grown-ups who need 86 minutes of something gentle after a rough week.
Spoilers
Mei runs off to bring corn to her mom at the hospital and gets lost, and the whole village searches for her. Satsuki asks Totoro for help, and the Catbus carries her to Mei and then to the hospital, where the girls see their mom is going to be okay and leave the corn on the windowsill.
Rural Japan, the 1950s. Satsuki (Noriko Hidaka) and her little sister Mei (Chika Sakamoto) move into a creaky old country house with their dad, a university professor, to be near the hospital where their mom is getting better. The house has soot sprites. The yard has a giant camphor tree. One afternoon, Mei follows two tiny critters through the bushes and finds a huge, fluffy, very sleepy forest spirit she calls Totoro (Hitoshi Takagi). Later, when she tries to lead her family back, the path is gone. Then comes a rainy evening at the bus stop. Hayao Miyazaki directs. Eighty-six minutes, one umbrella, pure joy.
Anyone who would share an umbrella with a giant forest spirit. Acorns appreciated.
| Noriko Hidaka | |
| Chika Sakamoto | |
| Hitoshi Takagi |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +360 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $32.1M; Domestic box office $3.1M; profit note now waits on a budget; Rotten Tomatoes 94%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 94% (64 reviews); Metacritic 87 / 100; IMDb users 8.1 / 10 (441,631 votes); movie.guru score 9.6.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.