The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville will show Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 animated film My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ) as part of the Pittsburgh Children's Film Festival from July 28 to August 3. A 2013 A.V. Club review provides a summary of the now-classic film:
There are magical creatures in My Neighbor Totoro: the Catbus, a 12-legged conveyance with headlight eyes; the soot sprites, tiny animate dust balls who cluster in the dimly lit corners of the family’s house; and Totoro himself. But the world is magic, too, in the way it might be to children who have never seen the towering beauty of a camphor tree before. Acorns sparkle like diamonds in the dirt; branches part to reveal hidden forest paths, then hide all trace of them.Ticket and showtime information is now available online; some shows are in Japanese with English subtitles, while others are dubbed in English. A 9:30 am "Cereal Cinema" screening on July 29 features an all-you-can-eat cereal bar.
Although the 86-minute Totoro is uncharacteristically short for a Miyazaki feature, the film is never in a rush; it’s nearly half an hour before the title character makes his first appearance. Though conventional wisdom has it that younger viewers need incessant stimulation lest their tiny attention spans expire, Miyazaki so effectively captures the feeling of a child’s life, inside as well as out, that little ones are often mesmerized by the movie, and adults are returned to a time when they could enjoy mystery for its own sake. Should there be something they don’t understand, they can always ask the nearest 4-year-old for clarification.