My Neighbor Totoro

“Wish I had a big friend like that,” said three-year-old George after watching My Neighbor Totoro. Yes, I thought, who wouldn’t want a friend like Totoro? He’s a big furry, bunny-like creature, endowed with magical powers, a forest spirit who never speaks a word, but offers protection to young children and other living creatures. And he flies, standing on a little spinning top that lifts him up above the trees. How cool is that?

Our whole family watched this film together, and we were all pretty enchanted. Directed by the Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki in 1988, this now-classic children’s film is visually gorgeous, with beautifully rendered scenes of the lush woods and pastoral landscape of rural Japan. The story follows two girls, Satsuki and her little sister Mei, who have just moved, with their father, into a decrepit country house at the edge of a forest.

A university professor, the father is gone for long stretches of the day, leaving the girls to make their own discoveries and have adventures. When at home, their father is a devoted and loving parent and there are many joyful scenes of family life. Their mother, however, is very sick and in the hospital—a plot line which was at times troubling as there was suggestion of her health declining.

But the overall sense of magic and happiness that fill this film override the few fear-inducing moments. For example, when the girls are first exploring their new house, they find it is over-run by "soot sprites"—mysterious black furballs that scurry across the floors and walls. These are spirits, like Totoro, seen only by the girls, but loud laughter easily dispatches with them. 

Totoro himself at first seems a bit alarming. Mei stumbles upon him at the base of a tree, in a nook protected by a briar patch. She mistakenly lands on his stomach while he is napping and he makes a loud growling and rumbling sound. But she soon realizes he is a friendly creature. Her father later tells her that Totoro is the “keeper of the forest.”

Far and away, the most magical and memorable part of this film for our kids was Totoro’s “Cat Bus”—a giant, bus-shaped feline with 12 legs who bounds across fields and nimbly walks along telephone lines. One evening when Mei is lost, the Cat Bus comes to Satsuki’s aid, inviting her inside and announcing, “Next stop: Little Sister!”

My Neighbor Totoro is a great film for kids of all ages, and grown-ups too. It portrays a loving family, and a sense of childhood discovery, fantasy, and the inner life of children. There is a message of respect for nature, and an overall gentleness about this film that is appealing. One thing I love is that there are no villains. So many children’s films rely on plots of good-guys-versus-bad-guys. My Neighbor Totoro offers a welcome departure from this tired formula with a well-told story and subtle yet compelling dramatic twists. We highly recommend!

Paddle to the Sea, by Guest Blogger Pearl

When she noticed me working on my review of Paddle to the Sea, my daughter Pearl asked if she could also write a review. So, please join me in welcoming my first guest blogger!

The   interesting   thing   about   Paddle   to   the   Sea,  is,   this   little   boy   hase  a  dream   thet   he   can   carv   a   toy   boat   thet   may   be  able   to   paddle   to   the   sea.   On   the   bottom   he   writes;  PLEASE   POOT   ME   BACK   IN   THE   WATER.   At   the   end  of  Winter   he  goes   to  a   large   slope   thet  is   covered   in   snow. In   Spring     the   snow    will   melt  and  Paddle   to   the Sea    will  began  his   jorny.  I loved the part where the frog jumped onto the boat and a water snake tried to eat the frog but the frog jumped on a lily pad.

By  Pearl, age 6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Paddle to the Sea

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went with some friends to the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival. This was a great event! We’ll definitely go back next year—a diverse slate of movies, and really fun-sounding workshops for kids. The films are screened in a 1920s art deco theater in the strange no-man’s land of Alameda’s abandoned naval base. Not exactly an event one might stumble upon, so am glad to say we are now “in the know”—and you are too!

One of the films we took in was Paddle to the Sea, William Mason’s Academy Award-nominated short about the adventures of a wooden boat.

This 1966 children’s film classic was shown in classrooms throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. While I don’t remember seeing it personally, I recognized the narrator’s voice in an instant as the voice of countless educational films from my own childhood. Now I realize it wasn’t the same narrator, of course, but there’s a certain quality to the voice—if you heard it, you’d see what I mean.

Many viewers will appreciate the retro educational film vibe, but Paddle to the Sea in fact offers much more, especially given its deceptively simple premise. The film stars a toy boat, an inanimate object that actually becomes heroic before our eyes. The story begins one winter when a Canadian Indian boy, living in a remote cabin, carves the boat out of wood and writes on the bottom: PADDLE TO THE SEA. PLEASE PUT ME BACK IN THE WATER. He places it on a hill, and in the spring when the snow begins to melt, Paddle to the Sea slides down the hill to a creek. So begins an epic journey, passing through the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean.

Mason's camera follows as Paddle to the Sea bobs along, through seasons and changing locations. The boat survives a forest fire, a ship’s propellers, and the toxic sludge of Detroit’s polluted waterways. Various animals interact with the boat, including birds, a water snake, and a frog who uses the boat to escape the jaws of a hungry fish. These scenes are quite magical, and left me wondering how many hours of film they must have shot to get these “non actors” to perform so perfectly.

Paddle to the Sea also meets a few humans along the way—in one scene a delighted little boy picks up the boat and then sets it down in the water to float. When the boat moves beyond his reach, the boy commands his dog to fetch it, and the dog refuses.  When others find the boat, they are also delighted, but then read the maker’s instructions to put it back in the water, and they obey.

While Paddle to the Sea features some stunning imagery, what really makes this film a classic is the power of the idea behind it—that a boy can have a dream, and that nature (the unstoppable flow of water running downstream) and humans (those kind-hearted people whom the boat meets along the way) can help that dream be realized. The film imparts a sense of wonder in the natural world, and a sense of benevolent forces at work. I found it uplifting, and the kids? They loved it! In fact, Pearl noticed me working on this entry and asked if she could write a review herself, which she did.

Ready to watch Paddle to the Sea? The 28-minute film is available for download from Canada’s National Film Board.  Or you can purchase the DVD from the Criterion Collection.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

When I found out that one of my favorite directors had made an animated version of the children's story Fantastic Mr. Fox a couple years back, I was intrigued to say the least. After watching this film for the third time recently, I must say it is one of my all-time favorites. Fortunately the kids like it too, so it’s one of those rare films that our whole family can happily watch again and again… and undoubtedly again!

Director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc.) applies his signature style and sensibility in this re-telling of the classic tale by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach). The stop-motion animation has a crafty, hand-made look to it, and features Anderson’s visual aesthetic—each shot is artfully composed, uncluttered, but with clever attention to small details.

The soundtrack is also reminiscent of Anderson’s other films, a mix of classic rock (Rolling Stones, Beach Boys) along with some wonderful Burl Ives songs and quirky—often hilarious—original compositions. And Anderson employs several regulars from his previous films, including Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray—so there's much to please diehard Wes Anderson fans.

The film stars George Clooney in the title role and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox. A newspaper columnist and reformed chicken thief, Mr. Fox presents a complicated character. Upwardly mobile, he wants to provide the best for his wife and son, Ash, a discontented, underachieving high school student. A real estate agent sells him a home in a tree, a considerable step up from a fox’s hole in the ground, and from there, the problems begin.

From their new abode, the Fox family has a clear view of three local farms owned respectively by Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Remembering the excitement of his past life, Mr. Fox enlists an opossum friend to help him steal some chickens from one of the farms. This “one last big job” quickly turns into a triple-header as Fox can't resist hitting up all three farms.

Meanwhile, the Foxes' nephew, Kristofferson, comes to stay with the family. Unlike Ash, Kristofferson excels at sports, knows martial arts, and exudes a calm coolness. From day one, the misfit Ash resents his cousin, and the tension mounts.

Ultimately, Mr. Fox’s greed and secrecy put his family, and the entire animal community, at risk. There are some tense chase scenes, which are all peppered with enough humor to keep them from being really scary. There are also personal conflicts to be ironed out—between kids, between husband and wife, and between neighbors—along with some existential soul searching that should ring familiar to many hitting the middle years of life. 

All in all, there’s a lot packed into this beautifully crafted film about a bunch of cute animals, and a lot to appeal to grown-ups and kids alike. We highly recommend!

Children's Film Festival this Weekend!

Sure it's a beautiful weekend here in the Bay Area, but we're going to be spending some quality time inside (and not feeling the least bit guilty about it!).

Today we're heading out to see a double feature of White Mane and Paddle to the Sea at the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival. The festival promises a great line-up throughout the weekend, including two shorts programs presenting work from around the globe, and two animated features, Un Vie de Chat (France) and Light of the River (Japan). Tomorrow there's a wonderful sounding documentary about young people performing in the troupe Circus Smirkus, Taylor Signe's Circus Dreams.

Hope to see you at the movies!

The Muppets & Your Local Art House Theater

Right after Thanksgiving, our whole family ventured out for a much-anticipated event: The Muppets had just opened in theaters, and we wanted to be among the first to take it in. I’ll tell you right now, you have to see this movie!

Hilarious and heart-warming, but not in a cloying way, The Muppets is great fun for the whole family. As a longtime Muppet fan, I feared a new generation of writers could not live up to Jim Henson’s legacy and vision. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by their blend of '80s nostalgia and a modern comic sensibility. The film feels very much like reuniting with old friends, just as it should, but goes beyond being a mere tribute piece or re-hashing of the familiar. The Muppets is actually clever and original—not what I expected from (gasp!) Disney.

My husband selected Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater as our destination—an Art Deco theater that has been lovingly maintained over the decades and still has its original ornate chandeliers, frescoes, and tile work.

Sitting with my family in the theater brought to mind something I haven’t touched on yet in this blog, which is my great love of movie theaters. In a world of online streaming, portable devices, and giant flat screen TVs, the way most of us watch movies has certainly changed over the years. I am not opposed to watching movies at home. I love the convenience, and sites like Netflix have given my family access to all kinds of previously hard-to-find films.

But there’s something magical about going to the theater, especially historic art houses like the Grand Lake. I love the grandeur, and imagining all the generations before who have escaped into that flickering world of the screen. Movie technology has evolved, but the sensation of sitting in the dark, laughing and crying along with fellow audience members—that experience remains timeless. Looking over at our kids’ beaming faces, wide-eyed and illuminated, I instantly re-connected with something treasured from my own childhood, and felt the joy of sharing it.

After the movie, we walked to Lake Merritt for a little bird-watching and went to lunch at a nearby restaurant, which leads me to the other thing I really value about local art houses: Unlike multi-plexes, the small theaters are part of the fabric of many communities. From small town main streets to neighborhood shopping districts, art house theaters provide culture, vibrancy, and a place where people come together.

Unfortunately, many smaller theaters are struggling to survive. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article on the plight of art house theaters, and I interviewed some folks around the country who are working to save them. It’s an uphill battle, to say the least, and they need all the help they can get.

So here’s an assignment for you: Go see The Muppets this holiday season. Bring your whole family, and if you can, support a local, independent art house theater.  And, oh yeah, don’t forget the popcorn!

The Muppet Movie (1979)

With a new Muppet movie coming out this month, my husband and I were inspired to introduce one of our childhood favorites to the kids: the original 1979 The Muppet Movie. We both had fond memories, but would it stand the test of time? And would our kids like it too?

The verdict: A resounding yes, the film holds up, even if some of the jokes and puns are groan-inducing. All four of us were laughing throughout at classic slapstick and the antics of Jim Henson’s timeless characters—Animal (“Beat drums!”), the overgrown Sweetums, the charmingly unfunny stand-up comic Fozzie Bear (“Wokka, wokka!”), and the diva to end all divas, Miss Piggy. And then of course, there’s Kermit, whose rendition of “The Rainbow Connection,” sung upon a lily pad in the middle of a swamp, is one of the most enduring film images of my childhood (along with the famous scene of him riding a bicycle—how the heck did they do that?).

A road trip film, The Muppet Movie follows Kermit from his swamp to Hollywood, in search of fame and fortune. Along the way, a growing entourage of misfits and dreamers join in for the ride. One exception: Big Bird, whom they pass on the road going in the opposite direction, declines the offer of a ride and says he is going, “To New York, to make my big break in public television.” Ha-ha!

The Muppets share the screen with real people, and there is no distinction between cloth and flesh as far as characters go, except that the cloth ones seem to have more heart. Among the cameo appearances are Orson Welles, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Bernadette Peters, Dom Deluise and Steve Martin, who plays a sarcastic waiter in a particularly hilarious scene. The iconic puppeteer Edgar Bergen and sidekick Charlie McCarthy also appear in their last film before Bergen’s death.

And of course there is Charles Durning as the evil restaurateur Doc Hopper. Hopper wants Kermit to perform as spokesman for his frog legs franchise, and when Kermit refuses, a ruthless chase ensues. Hopper enlists an evil scientist (Mel Brooks) in a brain-zapper scene that was a bit scary for three-year-old George. But the scene ends with laughs as Miss Piggy mightily trounces the bad guys to save her beloved “Kermie.”

Parents should also note there is a scene with a gun-slinging villain named Snake Walker, who is evil personified, and who throws a giant spear-like fork at an image of Kermit. His bad-guy cronies, Hopper's henchmen, use guns during a frog target practice.

Our overall take: There is some violence that may be troubling to the preschool set, but because it is handled in a comic way, older kids (say, six and up) are unlikely to be bothered. The Muppet Movie is a sweet film that encourages everyone to follow their dreams, and underscores the importance of friendship along the way. And there are enough laughs and the nostalgia factor to make it entertaining for grown-ups as well as kids. We’ll definitely watch it again.