My Neighbor Totoro

This was the best out of the Ghibli studio in my opinion, was a very moving story about the plight of the two sisters and their father who move into a new area and as their mother is in hospital, there is quite a lot going on with their lives .I found the story could be fun as well as sad at times with the three of them having to work out without their mum, the two girls meet the TOTORO god and is the most moving and fun gibli film i have seen and also the animation was amazing so much detail, also i watched this in the English and then the Japanese version and both were great to watch as each other .hope you enjoy this as much as i did .

All that ever will be said about the movie has been said already, the vast majority of which has been highly positive...so you don't need me to tell you how good it is. This review is just for the new 2010 Disney 2-disc 'Special Edition', with a feature packed extras disc. It is well worth re-investing in if you're a big Totoro fan. The UK single disc has literally a couple of trailers and storyboards, and the previous USA/R1 version made little use of the extra disc. This new version is packed with good stuff...as follows:The World of Ghibli:Creating My Neighbor TotoroCreating the CharactersThe Totoro ExperienceProducer's Perspective: Creating GhibliThe Locations of TotoroScoring MiyazakiOriginal Japanese TrailerBehind the MicrophoneCreating PonyoCreating Kiki's Delivery ServiceCastle in the Sky: Character SketchesEnter the Lands:(Interactive Map)...the biggest and best of which is the 'Locations of Totoro', a half hour segment from a Japanese documentary which went in search of the real life locations that inspired the environments in Miyazaki's movies. This segment, of course, focuses solely on Totoro, and some of the real life locations are so close to the movie it is really quite astonishing. The full length storyboards from the original Totoro DVD releases are also present, as are a clutch of unrelated Disney trailers. The interactive map section is aimed at children, with simple little games to play and various Ghibli video clips to discover.The discs come in a 2-disc Amaray style keep case, with an embossed cardboard slip-cover. What will be of interest to fans is the choice of cover image - a very interesting piece of artwork featuring the bus stop scene from when Miyazaki was toying with the idea of there being just one child in the family, and that the girl in question has a face that looks like a hybrid of Satsuki and Mei. Fortunately, Miyazaki-san decided on two children...and we got to meet the lovable sisters we now know so well...but this is a very interesting and beautiful piece of art nonetheless, and it reveals to us part of the journey that the production took to get to the finished product. Disney have also been kind enough to include a collectable card lithograph of this cover art, which you will find inside the case.The only unfortunate thing is the fact that this is the exact same print of the movie as before - so no digital restoration has been carried out. However, when the original print of the movie was clean, colourful and well mastered, this is no bad thing. It's the same Dolby 2.0 audio track as before, too. Spoken language tracks are English, French and Japanese (all Dolby 2.0). For English subtitles you have 2 choices; the 'dubtitles' (the English dub word for word), and a literal Japanese to English translation...which is recommended for a more authentic experience. The English audio dub is, of course, the latter Disney dub, with the voices of the Fanning sisters...not the earlier Fox dub. However, many find Totoro is best enjoyed in native Japanese with subtitles, but the Disney English dub is there for those who prefer it, or for kids who can't keep up with the fast flow of text. I myself prefer to listen in Japanese with the English subs on. After all, these are the voice actors Miyazaki chose - and often English anime dubs tend to over-Americanise, rather than simply translate.All in all it is well worth the upgrade. Although I would point out that the Ghibli collection is sure to make the transition to Blu-Ray at some point...so some fans may want to hold off. Also available in the new Disney 2-disc special editions are 'Kiki's Delivery Service', 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' (just called 'Castle in the Sky' in the US) and 'Ponyo'. I believe more from the Ghibli stable are to follow in this new special edition range.Please bear in mind that you need a region free DVD player to be able to play these imported Region 1 DVD's.

not English