My Neighbor Totoro

The excitement of making new magical friends helps cheer up two sisters who miss their mum while she’s in hospital, in this all-time Studio Ghibli fan favourite.

Two young girls, Satsuki and Mei, have moved with their father into a new home in the country, while their mother recovers from illness in a nearby hospital. To their surprise, they soon discover that they share this home with some rather unusual creatures and even stranger neighbours – forest guardians that the girls dub Totoro.

When trouble occurs, their new friends will help them rediscover hope.

Curator's Note

Studio Ghibli’s beautiful story about making friends in a new town takes viewers, young and old alike, on a magical and emotional ride. Viewers are invited to empathise with sisters Satsuki and Mei as they experience a range of different emotions – sometimes at the same time.

Joe Hisaishi’s adored musical score feels piano-driven with orchestral moments, but much of it was made on a Fairlight, an Australian-made synthesiser which became a music industry favourite in the 1980s. The musical score, which is beautifully affective throughout the film, feels timeless, but in fact, it’s quite timely to when the film was made.

To include younger viewers and viewers with differing literacy levels, we’ve decided to screen the English language version of the film featuring the voices of real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)

Our special Kids' Flicks with Feelings sessions include a curator introduction where we introduce the concept of emotional intelligence. Each session will begin by listening to a piece of music from the film's emotive score.