Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbour Totoro)
1988
****½
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Chika Sakamoto, Noriko Hidaka, Hitoshi Takagi, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto, Naoko Tatsuka
Two small girls move to a country house with their father, while their ill mother is in the nearby hospital. In the adjacent forest the girls befriend a kind spirit. Satsuki and Mei are lovely, authentically childlike characters whose close bond is very moving. This deceptively simple but absolutely delightful animation captures perfectly the joys, griefs, fears and wonders of childhood.