My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film - starring actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Hitoshi Takagi - tells the story of a family and their interactions with a forest spirit they call Totoro in post-war Japan. This spirit aims to help the two sisters to overcome her mother's illness in a more pleasant way, becoming her guide throughout the story.