> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://mereorthodoxy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# my neighbor totoro - Doctors Without Boredom
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/matthewloftus-2018-02-07-my-neighbor-totoro/
- Published: 2018-02-07T00:21:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-22T16:54:25.000Z
- Description: A lot of kids' entertainment is like Doritos. My Neighbor Totoro is like a fresh strawberry.
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Loftus, Art

We just watched the movie *My Neighbor Totoro* for the first time a few months ago, and Lauren Wilford [describes why it’s so great](http://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2017/03/13/towards-a-true-childrens-cinema-on-my-neighbor-totoro/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com):

> All this may make it sound like I’m making an “eat your vegetables” argument for watching *My Neighbor Totoro*. It’s true that I do think that most children’s entertainment has been pumped with a kind of spiritual and aesthetic corn syrup, in a desperate effort to make it go down easy. I just think that the desperation is unnecessary, and has resulted in a sort of “[Dorito effect](http://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/www.vox.com/2015/7/30/9070255/dorito-effect?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)” in children’s media: louder, faster, higher-stimulus entertainment is addictive, and has the tendency to crowd out quieter pleasures. But I do realize how insufferable it is for someone like me, who does not have children, to speak prescriptively about matters of parenting.  
>  
> Watching *My Neighbor Totoro* is not eating your vegetables—if anything, it’s more like eating a basket of perfect, small, ripe strawberries fresh from the farmer’s market.

Since my wife and I have signed up for a life that involves many long journeys and few of the structured outlets available to the children of our peers (e.g. dance classes or libraries), we spend a lot of time thinking about what sort of entertainment we want to expose our children to when the mosquitoes come out or we’re halfway through a 13-hour plane flight. I’m thankful that some material for children is trying to work against our tendency towards “louder, faster, higher-stimulus entertainment”, but it’s an uphill battle.

I love Wilford’s analogy here because I want my children to love and appreciate books, music, TV shows, and movies that are like strawberries. They’ll get Doritos when they go to their friends’ house, I’m sure — and it’ll be up to them what sort of consumption habits they adopt. But I was so glad to have found *My Neighbor Totoro* and I’m so glad that they loved it as much as they did. I look forward to watching it (and other “strawberry” films) with them over and over again over the years.