In my experience it’s taken me at least a couple of viewings to fall in love with all Hiyao Miyazaki’s movies, and this is a first viewing, so I could be swung completely on whatever I’m about to say.

I did find this a beautiful movie, but it seems to take so long to reach what could probably be said in a short movie (but then of course, the question is, without all the wait, would the pay-off be as good?). It’s just about regular nice people and children dreaming. It’s hard to talk about or explain.

Joe Hisaishi’s score is, as ever, fantastic, and the Totoro’s are among the cutest animated characters ever to grace the screen (I love the large one’s delight at the sound of raindrops on the umbrella).

It’s one I’ll seek out again for sure. For now, I don’t quite know what to make of it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2004 at 7:10 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.