My Neighbor Totoro: Difference between revisions

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{{tropelist}}

* [[Adult Fear]]: Mei running away from home and getting lost in the climax is something any adult or older sibling can understand. Goes [[Up to Eleven]] when the villagers find a little girl's sandal in the pond and fear that she's drowned.

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Totally averted, as in most [[Studio Ghibli]] [[film]]s.

* [[Alice Allusion]]: Mei follows a small Totoro and stumbles down the hole for King Totoro, just like Alice following the white rabbit and stumbling down the rabbit hole.

* [[Arcadia]]: Satsuki and her family live in a house in the countryside with simple and crude utilities like a manual hand pump. The two girls frequently explore the neighboring forests.

* [[Bug Buzz]]: During the night, when Mei and Satsuke helped 'awaken' the acorns.

* [[By the Eyes of the Blind]]: Only children seem to be able to see the soot sprites and Totoros. {{spoiler|At film's end, it's hinted the girls are [[Growing Up Sucks|getting too old]] to see the spirits.}}

* [[Character Title]]: The titular Totoro.

* [[Close-Knit Community]]: The village, as everyone helps Satsuki search for Mei.

* [[Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are]]: Satsuki and Mei trying to make the soot sprites (soot gremlins, depending on which version one watches) in the attic appear. It's toned down from the Japanese language track, where they also say, "Or we'll pluck your eyeballs out!"

* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: The end credits are put over a series of original drawings depicting the characters in the film. It implies that Mei and Satsuki never sees Totoro or the forest spirits again, as it never depicts them interacting together. It also shows them reaching out to hug their mum, who has come home from the hospital via a taxi.

** The opening credits are also creative, with a [[Thematic Theme Tune]] playing over a sequence of Mei and other animals marching across the screen, creating an iconic opening.

* [[Cute Kitten]]: The Kittenbus in the short-film sequel, ''Mei and the Kittenbus'', which plays [[No Export for You|exclusively]] at the Ghibli Museum. The Catbus can be considered as a grown up version of a Cute Kitten.

* [[Flight]]: This is a [[Hayao Miyazaki]] film, so you know the man will find ''some'' way of sneaking flight in here. Totoro has a [[Everything's Better with Spinning|spinning top]] which he can hop on to fly. The girls can then jump on his tummy, and be taken for a flight.

* [[Ghibli Hills]]: The Ur-example from the one and only [[Trope Namers|Trope Namer]], prominent around the house Mei and Satsuki moves into.

* [[Good Parents]]: Professor Kusakabe is probably the nicest Dad in anime. He's always patient, and likes playing with his daughters. He believes the girls when they tell him about Totoro, and even takes them to a shine and tells them about the forest spirits.

* [[Happy Ending]]: {{spoiler|Mei was found; she and Satsuki rides to the hospital in the Catbus. They leave a single corn for their mum, sees that she is okay, and rides home in the Catbus while the [[Title Theme Tune]] is playing.}}

* [[Incurable Cough of Death]]: Averted - though the disease is treated as this trope, the girl's mother never coughs even once; thankfully she doesn't actually die from it.

** Considering it was based on Miyazaki's own life, and his mother had tuberculosis, coughing would certainly have been justified.

* [[Leitmotif]]: Overlaps with [[Title Theme Tune]]. The ending credits song, "My Neighbor Totoro", is frequently used throughout the film, usually in scenes starring forest spirits like Totoro, such as in the scene Mei chases Chibi-Totoro.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: When compared to its [[Double Feature]] with ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]''. ''My Neighbor Totoro'' is an adventure about children laughing and interacting with forest spirits, ''Grave of the Fireflies'' is about them dying for two hours straight.

* [[Mickey Mousing]]: The music follows Mei's actions in the scene where she chases the Chibi-Totoro and finds King Totoro, using mainly brass instruments. [[Joe Hisaishi]]'s more traditional orchestral soundtracks are frequently intertwined with songs with cartoony sound effects and Mickey Mousing.

* [[Narrative Shapeshifting]]: The opening credits.

* [[Panty Shot]]: Throughout the movie.

* [[Real Life Relative]]: Real life siblings Dakota and Elle Fanning voice Satsuki and Mei in the Disney dubs.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Miyazaki's father was an academic and his mother was successfully treated for tuberculosis in a rural sanitarium. In an interview published in ''Starting Point: 1979-1996'' Miyazaki mentioned he made the main characters girls so it wouldn't be too close to his own life.

* [[Scenery Censor]]: While Satsuki, Mei, and their father are taking a bath together.

* [[Slice of Life]]: Despite Totoro appearing on the cover suggesting a fantasy adventure, the film is quite laid back and slow paced, showing many mundane moments like moving into a new house or fetching water from a pump. While an overarching conflict is present throughout the film, it only plays a major role in the plot near the end, during the "tenku" phase of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu Kishōtenketsu story structure].

* [[Thematic Theme Tune]]: The song over the opening credits, titled "Stroll", is reflective of the adventurous and energetic themes present in the first half of the film, involving Mei and Satsuki's exploration of the forests surrounding their home.

* [[Thousand-Yard Stare]]: Totoro often does this, especially if the creature is looking at Mei or Satsuki.

* [[Title Theme Tune]]: The song over the ending credits, appropriately titled "My Neighbor Totoro". Guess which character's name is constantly repeated.

* [[Tooth Strip]]: Averted when Totoro and the girls roar, where each individual tooth is drawn. Later, when they exclaim that "we're the wind", the trope is played straight. Totoro tends to have tooth drawn individually while the girls tends to get a Tooth Strip.

* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: The credits show scenes from the girls' lives during the year following the story. It also shows Totoro interacting with other forest spirits, but never the girls interacting with Totoro, implying that the events of the film were a one-off adventure.

* [[Zigzag Paper Tassel]]: The Shinto ropes on Totoro's tree.