In 1958, the Kusakabe family reunites when a university professor and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei (approximately ten and four years old, respectively) move into an old house in rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where their mother is recovering from an unnamed, long-term illness. The daughters find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari — small house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When the girls become comfortable in their new house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits (identified as "black soots" in early subtitles and "soot sprites" in the later English dubbed version) leave the house to drift away on the wind. While she is playing outside one day, the younger daughter, Mei, sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures, who lead her through a briar patch, and into the hollow of a large Camphor tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "Totoro" (in the original Japanese dub, it stems from Mei's mispronunciation of the Japanese pronunciation of the word "troll"). Her father later tells her that this is the "keeper of the forest".
One rainy night the girls are waiting for their father's bus and grow worried when he does not arrive on the bus they expect him on. As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. He only has a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken along for her father. Totoro is delighted at both the shelter and the sounds made upon it by falling raindrops. In return he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds. A bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella. Shortly after, their father’s bus arrives.
The girls plant the seeds. A few days later they awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his two miniature colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted nuts and seeds. The girls join in, whereupon the seeds sprout and then grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted.
The girls find out that a planned visit by their mother has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment. Satsuki takes this very hard, having reached the age where she fully understands the concept of death. Frustrated and frightened, she yells at Mei, then stomps away. Mei, believing that her mother can be cured by healthy food, sets off on foot to the hospital with an ear of corn.
Her disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search for her; eventually Satsuki returns in desperation to the Camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the confused Mei sits. Having rescued her, the Catbus then whisks her and Satsuki over the countryside to see their mother in the hospital. The girls perch in a tree outside of the hospital, overhearing a conversation between their parents and discovering that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold and is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where it is discovered by the parents, and return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus departs, it fades away from the girls' sight.
The closing credits show Mei and Satsuki's mother returning home and feature scenes of Satsuki and Mei playing with other children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.
Because Totoros are creatures who protect the forest and are heroes of nature, I am of course thrilled that my son loves them. I decided to crochet him a set of his very own Totoros, hoping to complete them in time for his birthday. I made the Gray Totoro first. While the actual character is ginormous, I wasn't anticipating that the amigurumi Totoro would large as well. I anticipated a quick project and a little five inch Totoro. Once I started though, I realized this was going to be a large toy, but I was already commited to the pattern and decided to follow through.
I used Lion's Brand Wool Ease for all three of the Totoros and a size F crochet hook. The pattern indicates size E hook, but that was too small for the yarn I chose. For all three, I decided to make the eyes out of cut-out felt pieces rather than plastic eyes or crocheting them on. I like the look of the felt better and I know that they are safe for my little guys.
The Gray Totoro was made using oxford grey and fisherman colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).
Blue Totoro was made with blue heather and frost colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).
White Totoro was made only with white frost colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).
I was very pleased with how these turned out, and seeing how much my children loved them definitely made them well worth the time and effort put into making them.
This wasn't the end of my Totoro crafting though. I'd like to share two more little Totoro projects I made for my son's birthday party.
Felted acorns
For party favors I made little bamboo parcels with felted acorns to mimic the gift Totoro gives to the children in the film. To make the acorns I used wool roving to felt into small balls and then glued the balls to acorn caps that I found on my run. You can find instructions on how to felt balls from wool roving on my blog post here, but note that I've found the best method to be alternating between dipping the ball in very hot soapy water and cold running water frequently as it is formed.
Totoro mobile
This cute little decoration was made in just a couple of hours.
To make the Totoro, I stitched together some pieces of wool felt using this simple pattern I found while browsing through pinterest. Then, using twine and sticks from our backyard, I fastened him onto a little swing.
The soot sprites were made from pom-poms using black yarn, a fork, and some googly eyes (you can view a pom-pom making tutorial here). I made some extra soot sprites for table decorations.
I had so much fun making all these Totoro inspired crafts for my boys!
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