Four new short films from the animation studio Ghibli, which will receive an honorary Palme d’Or on Monday in Cannes, will be shown on the Croisette, including a mini-sequel to the classic My Neighbor Totoro, the organizers of the Festival.
“In an unprecedented event, three of the four short films, straight from the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, have never been seen outside Japan,” the Festival said in a press release.
These short films were all written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli with Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata, and a living legend of animation. Among them, Mei and the Kitten Bus, billed as “a mini-sequel” to My Neighbor Totoro, Looking for a House, Mr. Dough and Princess Egg and Boro the Little Caterpillar.
Huge plush toy against fears
Considered a master of animation, two-time Oscar winner Hayao Miyazaki opened dreamlike worlds of magical creatures and powerful-hearted heroines to children and adults alike. He will not be in Cannes on Monday, his son Goro Miyazaki will represent him and will come to collect the Palme awarded to the entire studio.
In My Neighbor Totoro, two sisters move in with their father in the countryside in a house where strange things happen. It is by falling to the bottom of a hole in the woods that they meet Totoro, an enormous stuffed toy – a sort of forest spirit, who has become the mascot of Studio Ghibli – who helps them tame their fears. The reference to Alice in Wonderland is evident in this learning story where children and adults alike use their imagination to navigate between the fear and wonder that the unknown provokes.