One of the most iconic Studio Ghibli films is returning to theaters this month. Lately, a handful of Ghibli films have been given theatrical re-releases years after their original releases. Now, another one is making its way to the big screen for a limited time only.
Studio Ghibli is an award-winning animation studio founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. Its first feature film was Castle in the Sky, released in 1986. Since then, it has released over 20 feature films, including award-winning hits like Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron, both of which won “Best Animated Feature” at the Academy Awards. Recently, films like Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service have returned to theaters for a limited release, and now another notable feature directed by Miyazaki is making its theatrical return.
My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 animated feature that has grossed over $41 million worldwide. Directed by Miyazaki, it follows two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who discover mysterious spirits called susuwatari in their new home before befriending a large, gentle spirit they name “Totoro.” CBR reported that GKIDS and Fathom Entertainment announced a theatrical re-release of My Neighbor Totoro this July, in both English and Japanese dubs. Additionally, the theatrical re-release will feature a post-film bonus featurette titled “Creating My Neighbor Totoro.” The English dub of My Neighbor Totoro stars Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe, Tim Daly (Superman: The Animated Series) as their father, Tatsuo Kusakabe, Lea Salonga (KPop Demon Hunters) as their mother, Yasuko Kusakabe, and Frank Welker (2019’s Aladdin) as Totoro and Catbus.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
Is ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ Worth Watching?
Since its release, My Neighbor Totoro has become somewhat synonymous with the Studio Ghibli brand, with Totoro featured in the studio’s logo. Additionally, the film was praised, earning a 94% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.2-star rating on Letterboxd. According to critics, ScreenRant claimed My Neighbor Totoro is “a heartwarming and melancholy Ghibli masterpiece,” and many other outlets share the same sentiment. Others claimed that My Neighbor Totoro could “cross generations and cultural barriers” and that watching it would make viewers feel like a kid again. Meanwhile, audiences felt “enamored” after watching the movie and called My Neighbor Totoro a “timeless anime classic.” Some also note that the movie’s charm and innocent vibe make up for its lack of story.
My Neighbor Totoro enters theaters on July 11. You can stream the film on HBO Max and Prime Video. Follow Collider for more updates.
