My Shinigami Totoro?

So my dad wanted to watch something with me tonight since my mother was out and after toiling for a half hour picking something out I settled on My Neighbor Totoro.

I like the movie I like most if not ALL Ghibli movies but as I was watching it I was reminded of an article I read thankfully I didn't remember it well enough to be taken out of the movie.

Here is said Article

http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Does anybody else know about this and can elaborate?

 

I look at it like classic Disney tales - take some old story with a typically horrible ending and give it a happy ending. It's a formula. Look at the real story behind a couple Disney Classics:

Sleeping Beauty - she sleeps for 100 years while princes die so often trying to reach the castle that the final prince crosses the thorn barrier using their bodies.

The Little Mermaid - the guy marries someone else and the mermaid commits suicide.

You get the idea - find a story that you like, change a few things (especially the ending in most cases), and you have your movie script.

 

Well that's certainly news to me, interesting read. Totoro has to be one of my most favourite pieces of animation.

To be honest I never took the story all that seriously or rather payed attention to it. I did see it with subtitles long before Disney acquired the distro rights, so maybe they've adjusted some things as I haven't seen their DVD version yet.

 

huge totoro and ghibli fan here. thanks for the info adds a whole other dimension to it. dont think ill ever be able to watch it in the same light again.

totoro factoid. ursula le guin who wrote the earthsea novels (imo earthsea is far greater than LOTR) was approached by hayao to produce anime versions of the novels but she refused having not seen his work, then upon watching totoro she consented only to have goro butcher some of the greatest fantasy novels ever.