Ready the Catbus: My Neighbor Totoro is returning to theaters
Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro was many Americans’ first introduction to the work of Hayao Miyazaki back in the day, but it has since been frequently outshone in Western pop culture by his more outsized epics like Princess Mononoke. Happily, you can now remedy that, because Totoro is returning to theaters.
In honor of its 30th anniversary, the whisper-slight but deeply moving tale of a couple of sisters moving with their father to an old country house to be closer to their hospitalized mother—and encountering a delightful woodland spirit in the process—is being re-released theatrically for three days only. On September 30, October 1, and October 3, you’ll have the opportunity to see the gentle familial fantasy on the big screen thanks to Fathom Events and GKIDS, as part of their Studio Ghibli Fest 2018 celebration. Purists a little bummed out at the idea of viewing the Disney dubbed version—with Dakota and Elle Fanning voicing the sisters Satsuki and Mei (bonus points for life siblings imitating art siblings, though) and Tim Daly as the father Tatsuo—will be relieved to hear the subtitled version is also an option. A complete list of theaters screening the film—more than 700 of them— is available at the Fathom Events website. No word on whether the company will also be providing rides to the screenings on a magical flying top.