My Neighbor Totoro: What's Real? | Big Joel

Summary

Highlights

• Big Joel discusses his favorite scene involving Mae and Satsuki planting acorns and the magical events that unfold 🌳.
• He emphasizes the audience's role in accepting Totoro's reality alongside the protagonists' experiences 🌜.
• The video explores how the film presents a conflict of reality that transcends the narrative itself 📽️.
• Big Joel delves into the film's ability to make viewers question their perception of magic and reality 🎭.
• The exploration calls for appreciating emotional truths over logical consistency in Miyazaki's storytelling ❤️.

Key Takeaways

• Exploration of the whimsical magic in 'My Neighbor Totoro' and its impact on both characters and audience 🎥.
• The profound connection between fantasy and reality in the film, highlighting childhood imagination 🌱.
• Big Joel encourages viewers to embrace the film's emotional richness over rational logic 🚀.
• An introspective look into the way we interpret narratives and evidence in fantasy works 🔍.
• Miyazaki's attention to detail creates a believable and enchanting cinematic universe ✨.

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Scene Description The chapter titled 'Introduction and Scene Description' features a speaker discussing their favorite scene from the movie 'My Neighbor Totoro'. The scene in question takes place in the middle of the movie, after the main characters, Mae and Satsuki, plant acorns given to them by Totoro with the hope of growing trees. They go to sleep but wake up to find Totoro outside, leading them to run out and meet him.
• 00:30 - 02:00: Analysis of the Scene In this chapter titled 'Analysis of the Scene,' the characters plant seeds that later sprout into a massive tree, which they fly around on Toto's belly. The girls experience the sensation of 'becoming the wind,' but are left wondering how they ended up in bed afterwards. Initially disappointed to find no massive tree the next morning, their spirits lift when they see that the seeds they planted have begun to sprout.
• 02:00 - 04:00: Conflict Between Protagonists and Audience Perspective In this chapter, the narrative sets the stage for the audience to develop a complex relationship with the protagonists. Through an intriguing scene, the audience is prompted to question what constitutes sufficient proof to declare something as true within the world of the film. This theme, introduced early, challenges viewers’ perceptions and suggests that navigating 'My Neighbor Totoro' involves a deeper engagement with its reality. The text indicates that a shared understanding or question about truth and reality is pivotal as the story unfolds.
• 04:00 - 06:00: Resolution and Personal Interpretation The chapter explores the differing perspectives of viewers regarding the existence of Totoro in the film. While Mae and Satsuki naturally accept Totoro's existence, viewers arrive at this belief from various angles. As an audience, there is a willingness to embrace the reality presented in the movie. The narrative suggests that even if the film concluded with the fantastical moment of a giant tree growing, viewers would readily believe it because the movie had already established a convincing reality.
• 06:00 - 07:30: Conclusion and Personal Thoughts In this concluding chapter, the narrative explores the differing perspectives of characters Mae and Satsuki compared to the audience. Unlike an audience that accepts the fictional contract and makes various assumptions, Mae and Satsuki seek tangible proof and evidence to connect their experiences with reality. An intriguing object is introduced that highlights this contrast between the audience's acceptance of fiction and the protagonists' need for validation. The chapter blends themes of belief, reality, and skepticism, offering insightful reflections on how individuals interact with and interpret their experiences.
• 07:30 - 09:00: Patreon Question and Sign Off In this chapter, the narrator reflects on the nature of belief and perception using a metaphor involving growing trees and the character Totoro. The audience initially witnesses what seems to be supernatural activity by Totoro, leading to certain expectations. However, as time passes, the natural growth of the trees causes the audience to reconsider their beliefs. They are left questioning whether Totoro truly exists, if it was merely coincidental, or if Totoro's actions are inconsistent. This chapter explores themes of faith, perception, and the thin line between reality and imagination.

My Neighbor Totoro: What's Real? | Big Joel Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey everybody so I've been making some longer more intense videos lately so I thought it would be a good time to take a minute and talk about something I really like my favorite scene from my neighbor totoro and let's just jump right into it the scene occurs right toward the middle of the movie after our protagonists Mae and Satsuki plant some acorns that Totoro gave them in hopes that they'll be able to grow some trees they go to bed but wake up when they spot Totoro outside so they run to meet
• 00:30 - 01:00 him and grow a massive tree together after this they fly through the air on Toto rose belly seeing the sights and as Satsuki puts it becoming the wind cuts of the girls waking up we don't know how they got to bed they look outside and seem disappointed for a second that there is no massive tree there but their mood quickly changes when they see that the seeds they planted have now sprouted [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 all that stuff wasn't just a dream after all okay so this scene is important because in a really elegant way it Prime's us as viewers to have a strange relationship with the protagonists of the film a relationship defined by one question what is our burden of proof in claiming something is true about this world see going into my neighbor totoro the audience shares one major thing in
• 01:30 - 02:00 common with Mae and Satsuki our willingness to accept that in this movie Totoro exists however we come to that willingness from entirely different perspectives as people watching this film we are predisposed toward just accepting whatever reality it offers us were the film to end on this scene where the game grows a big tree together we wouldn't doubt for a second that these events were actually occurring in the movie because we would have been provided all the proof we could ever
• 02:00 - 02:30 need seeing it happen Mae and Satsuki on the other hand are not living under this contract of fiction they don't make the various assumptions that an audience has to make and for that reason they are the sorts of people who would want to have more proof want some evidence that the experiences they've had have some actual relationship to their reality and in this scene we're introduced to an object that actively plays on this difference between us and the protagonists the
• 02:30 - 03:00 sprouts of these growing trees looking at these sprouts the audience can naturally come to a set of sort of disappointing conclusions where the Totoro last night seemed to do this amazing supernatural thing today we see that none of that apparently happened either Totoro doesn't exist and the fact that these trees are growing now is just a coincidence or maybe Totoro kind of exists but whatever he does is not always the same as what it
• 03:00 - 03:30 looks like he's doing either way this night sequence does not give us the whole truth right but for me and Satsuki the sprouts have the exact opposite effects they allow the girls to go from a state of skepticism noting that what they expected is not there to having their reality confirmed Totoro grew this big tree and now something related to growing trees is happening here and the protagonists reject the distinctions
• 03:30 - 04:00 between these two events and instead recognize a pattern of causal relationship a different form of evidence this seam doesn't raise any stakes within the world of my neighbor totoro there is no real problem it presents to the characters of the film rather it creates a conflict outside of the narrative a sense that the events of the film cannot work for both its protagonists and its audience that there is some fundamental disconnect here in
• 04:00 - 04:30 how we approach this world and how we begin to say things about it and in the final moments of this movie I think we're sort of instructed to remember and reflect on this tree scene may runs away and Satsuki desperately tries to find her but Satsuki is incapable of doing so until these woodland creatures appear help her find may in the woods and give them a little trip to see their sick mom who's apparently getting better now I don't think I'm the only one who finds
• 04:30 - 05:00 this scene pretty uncomfortable for one thing it's like notably packed the main problems in this film that Satsuki is upset that she's forced into a maternal role with may that may is upset and perhaps incapable of dealing with the possibility of her mother's loss that their mother is ill in the first place and might not get better this all gets resolved in about two minutes because a literal cat bus comes from the sky and resolves their conflicts and lets them see the good news it's eerie in its own
• 05:00 - 05:30 way but also this feeling is made all the more powerful because we have very clear proof that these magic creatures don't always do what we see them doing I mean they didn't grow big tree did they how can we see that not doubt that this ending is really occurring within the reality of the film it only makes sense to watch the scene with some reservation and this is really where my neighbor totoro gets
• 05:30 - 06:00 interesting to me because no I don't think this Catbus scene is some hallucination I don't think SOT ski never found me that watching their mother was just fantasy that they died in the wilderness or something awful like that I mean we see them coming home surrounded by friends and family what is this heaven that's just morbid and insipid and feels more like a fun game theory than an actual good faith read of this movie so now I guess we're
• 06:00 - 06:30 in a pretty weird spot right a situation where our evidence suggests two contradictory things we feel like we know that these creatures did a magical thing for the protagonists the protagonists think that - but according to the model we've used to learn things about this world there's good reason to think they did no such thing and what do we do with that tension how are we as an audience supposed to resolve this conflict well there's two
• 06:30 - 07:00 ways we can do it first we could just accept the contradiction these little sprouts are not evidence that Totoro exists or does magical things but later on magic stuff does happen and we just have to be okay with that - look at this movie and ask questions like what is real or how does this world work or is there really magic going on that stuff is kinda missing the point the world of
• 07:00 - 07:30 My Neighbor Totoro is chaotic and strange and that reflects the chaotic and strange functioning of a child's imagination and by presenting us with this contradictory logic the film asks us to not care so much to put our brains aside and accept that the movie is more about tone and feelings than it is about rationality and while that is a perfectly reasonable interpretation of this film it just doesn't do it for me I mean one of the cornerstones of Hayao
• 07:30 - 08:00 Miyazaki's work is an emphasis on verisimilitude the feeling that his work is always attentive to the real world believable and well grounded we can see this in the animation and scripting of my neighbor totoro how vivid everything feels and partially for that reason it seems like a bit of a cop-out to say this film doesn't care about the logic of its own universe doesn't want us to concern ourselves with the questions it presents and does not call for a
• 08:00 - 08:30 rational understanding so instead I prefer to interpret the film like this we were wrong and Mae and Satsuki were right this whole time looking at these little sprouts it might seem like there is a telling difference between this and the magic that was supposed to have occurred a difference that might mean that no magic exists here at all but in fact that was an incorrect meaning to draw from this situation this big tree grew last night it was helped along by
• 08:30 - 09:00 Totoro and the girls and the real evidence of this fact not just some tepid imagination evidence is that we can see sprouts popping up from the ground this is actually enough to prove that what happened last night wasn't a dream the protagonists knew this when they first saw it and we can't fully agree until the end of the movie honestly I think this interpretation is just so cool like fantasy films often
• 09:00 - 09:30 ask us to accept or at least appreciate things that are not true about our world when Dorothy goes to Oz when Harry picks up that wand when Rudy enters the choc zone we have to entertain the fact that things here are fantastical unreal but at the end of the day the way we learn facts about these universes is pretty much the same as it is in day-to-day life we observe things we take in the evidence we make reasonable conclusions about how things work and that's fine
• 09:30 - 10:00 you know I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all but it doesn't demand from us what Totoro demands that shift in epistemology that substantial change in the we come into knowledge it's not the sprouts and how happy it makes me and Satsuki that makes me love this scene so much nor is it the big magic tree rather I love this scene as it exists in the film because it makes us perceive these objects as connected in a way that we would naturally want to resist it forces
• 10:00 - 10:30 us to think of the world of my neighbor totoro as a magical place not because of all the magic stuff that's in it but because of the strange and unfamiliar way we learn that stuff is magical here so I hope you liked that video kind of a return to form just talking about a thing I like isn't that it wasn't that nice if you liked it feel free to like comment and subscribe and give me money
• 10:30 - 11:00 on patreon and follow me on Twitter if you're feeling so inclined so now it's time for my patreon question of the video Kawara asks what is your favorite meme I like the meme where it's like a big dog and then a smaller picture of the big dog and it's like don't ever talk to me here my son again even thinking about that meme is just putting a smile on my face it's pretty great don't don't don't talk to me or my son
• 11:00 - 11:30 again okay thank you so much bye