Other: My Neighbor Totoro

I finally got to watch the film My Neighbor Totoro last night. (Thanks to Jeanne for loaning it to me.) It was the 2005 Disney dub with the Fanning sisters (used in an unobtrusive rather than obnoxiously cute manner) as sisters Satsuki and Mei.¹

What I liked about it:

• Kyuuuuuuuto!
• Sweet but not cloyingly so²
• Didn't go into a whole voice-over prologue. ("Mei and Satsuki were little girls whose mother was sick and had been in a hospital a long time. They moved with their father to an old, empty farmhouse out in the country, so when their mother came home, she would have healthy air..." etc.)³

What I didn't like:

• Not enough Totoro action!

---

¹ Fox and Troma Films had earlier had American rights and had released their dubbed version in 1993. After their license lapsed, Disney grabbed it and made their own dubbed version.
² If it had been made in America, it almost certainly would have been tooth-decayingly sentimental.
³ If it had been made in America, it almost certainly would have had a least-common-denominator narration.