My Neighbor Totoro

The first time I saw My Neighbor Totoro I didn't really see anything particularly deep in it. I didn't really feel like that many questions came up for me. But the second time I saw it (in this class) I started taking in a bunch of different messages- especially after Thursday's class.
The thing that I find particularly interesting in this film is the role of magic. Is it real? Is it the imagination of the children? Yes, the father and Nanny acknowledge the presence of magic, but don't actually see it themselves. Nanny says that she used to see it when she was a younger, but not anymore. So the Satsuki and Mei are the only ones who see the magic. Are the adults recognizing that there is magic because they want the kids to feel comfortable exploring their imagination or because they know that the magic is real but that they just can't see it?
Miyazaki definitely does not give a straightforward answer to these questions- other than giving many connections between the everyday and the magical worlds. For example the wind shakes the house and quiets when the soot-spreaders leave, takes Satsuki's sticks and blows them up to Totoro's tree (where he sits and plays the ocarina) as if he wants her to look. The wind wakes the kids up to the Totoros making the trees grow. Also, when the cat bus blows things around that adult people see, but they don't see the source of the wind. Does Miyazaki think the wind is magical sourceless force? It's a sort of given force that has no visible origin. In non-Miyazaki film world the wind seems magical from that standpoint.
Magic is real for those who see it.
One thing that we didn't talk about in class that I find particularly interesting is when the Totoros and the kids are growing the trees and the trees all of a sudden start growing really fast. We see the trees rising up above the house in a shape not unlike that of a mushroom cloud. What does that mean to make growing trees look like a mushroom cloud in a film that takes place in post-war Japan? The only thing that I can think of is that the growing trees is a sign of Totoro's power as a forest spirit (which is kind of indicative for the greater power of the Earth). Also, that Totoro is a powerful character (for the "good") in the film because he can pretty much solve any problem. He is a stand in for the parents and he even helps Satsuki find Mei and get the corn to the mother- all with the metaphorical snap of his fingers.