{thanksfully: Totoro}

Lest you think my Thanksgiving Advent Calendar Countdown is about all things Deep and Meaningful, let me assure you that I am as childish and ridiculous as the next person (or, if you were feeling nice, you could say “childlike and whimsical,” but I’m pretty sure childish fits just fine). I LOVE Totoro. I think Hayao Miyazaki has adorable dimples, and I am a fan of pretty much all things Studio Ghibli (or Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Jiburi, as it’s also known).

I think the first Ghibli film I ever saw was an accident – we’d seen an ad for Spirited Away, but when we went to pick up the DVD – in Ye Olden Days when they rented them from Stores – it wasn’t it, and so we just picked up something else. One of the vids ended up being something about pandas for preschoolers, which we watched for a moment with bemusement (you can do this when you’re really tired and don’t want to get up to turn it off). “Okay, what else did you get?” I wanted to know. Tech Boy then put in Totoro, which, incidentally, is also for preschoolers, we were just stunned. It is gorgeous – the animation is atop backgrounds which look like well-executed oil paintings – and fey – the bunny looking things aren’t really bunnies… and really weird – the dust balls are alive (which in my house would explain so, so much) and — oddly beautiful. This still doesn’t really explain how two totally past-it non-preschoolers sat and watched the whole cartoon – and got sniffly at the end – but… you just had to be there. It was …fun. It took our imaginations, and drew them into their own little journey.

And then we watched Kiki’s Delivery Service. The beginning scenes depict Kiki lying in a field, listening to the radio… and that animated grass waving in the wind was just beautiful. Who else puts that much careful work into moving every single blade? Hayao Miyazaki – and now Goro, his son. Our all-time, rewatchable favorite Ghibli film is still Spirited Away; it’s full of spooky, weird, ridiculous and sublimely artistic things which we don’t quite get, but love to watch.

If you’ve read my blog frequently, you know I don’t always like movie adaptions of my favorite books – it’s more accurate to say that most times I violently dislike them, but since I didn’t read My Neighbhor, Totoro as a picture book, I came to it with no preconceived notions of plot or storyline. However, I will always remember how much Diana Wynne Jones loved that someone from another country and culture cared enough to interpret her work, so watching Ghibli’s version of Howl’s Moving Castle is something I can do with the idea that there are both cultural differences and other understandings of elements of plot at play, and know it was okay with her. I may even someday be able to watch Tales from Earthsea… fortunately, there are a lot of other Ghibli’s which embrace the strange and fey world of fable and myth and excellent anime, and I can’t wait for the next one.

For the gift of magically good anime, and the grace of imagination, I am really and truly thankful.