My Neighbor Totoro

Or as I like to call it, Children Running: The Movie. In the Miyazaki mold, this movie still counts as fantasy, but it's one of the more grounded ones he's made. It's about a man and his two daughters moving to a new house in the country while the mother is in the hospital. The main conflict in the movie is the kids worrying about their mom's condition, but it's not really the focus of the movie. The main appeal for a lot of it was the relationship between the two sisters. Originally they were written as a single character, but for dramatic purposes they were split into two, the younger of which follows the older everywhere and imitates a lot of her actions. It's good at reminding you of a time when you really looked up to someone.

It takes about half an hour, but eventually they do introduce Totoro, a giant furry creature that befriends the sisters. It does the whole "is this real?" thing for a bit, but it becomes clear that it's the sort of thing that only kids can see because they believe in it. Totoro helps them out with some things, eventually saving the day when a crisis arises. There's not really a huge driving force to the plot, but the movie works because of its very genuine nature and the simple truth with which it treats the subject matter. The animation's nice, the music is pleasant and it's a movie that's just hard to not like if you're not a teenager. Because of monetary concerns it was originally shown in theaters alongside Grave of the Fireflies, which is one of the most incongruous pairings I've ever heard of, but now it stands as one of the many beloved works in the Ghibli library.