We gasped when we came across this poster for the classic Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. Admittedly, it’s a bit hard for kids to grasp at first but the poster depicts a birds-eye view of the sisters, Satsuki and Mei, pushing their way through tall grass. But the markings ahead indicate that they’re actually walking through the fur of Totoro’s large belly.
The poster was designed by Chinese designer Huang Hai, who happens to be a legendary figure in the world of movie poster designs. The poster was designed for the occasion of a digitally remastered version of the film being released in China on December 14, 2018.
Another very cool element of the poster is that we learned that in Chineses, Totoro is written as 龙猫 (or 龍猫) which means dragon cat! And as it turns out, the Chinchilla is also called dragon cat in Chinese. Perhaps a translator thought that Totoro looks like a Chinchilla? For bonus points, can you spot the cat eye in the 龙猫 characters in the poster?
Huang Hai has done numerous poster designs for Japanese films including the posters below for Hirokazu Koreeda’s award-winning film Shoplifters:
December 2, 2018 at 11:21 am
Wonderful work…
I guess impossible to purchase ??
December 2, 2018 at 11:46 am
Is this available for purchase anywhere?
December 2, 2018 at 12:29 pm
While driving down MS Highway 59 south to New Orleans for Thanksgiving, I passed an SUV with a wonderful design on the side window! It was a silhouette of Totorro!! Someone else in Mississippi knows something about Japanese heroes! Naturally I had to go online and locate one for myself, not difficult to find! And today–just in time for Christmas–my small SUV Vibe has Totorro riding in my back window looking out at anyone passing me by! (Only cost $5 including shipping.)