My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) is the Hayao Miyazaki family film you can watch online on iFILM. Sisters Satsuki and Mei move with their father into a creaky old house near a hospital where their mother is recovering.

The new home is full of small wonders. Soot sprites scatter in the dark, and beyond the rice fields, deep in the woods, lives something enormous and soft. Little Mei tumbles through the bushes one afternoon and falls asleep on the belly of Totoro, a forest spirit only children can see. He has no quest and no enemy. He grows oak trees under the moon, shelters at a bus stop in the rain, and summons the Catbus to help the girls when the youngest goes missing on the road to her mother.

This is the Studio Ghibli film that became the studio's own emblem; Totoro still peers out from its logo. Miyazaki built an almost plotless story about childhood, where worry over a sick parent and the magic of a summer forest sit quietly side by side. Composer Joe Hisaishi gave it one of the most recognizable themes in Japanese animation. Stream My Neighbor Totoro (1988) online on iFILM.