Welcome to the Ghibliotheque, the podcast that leafs through the library of films from the world’s greatest animation studio, Studio Ghibli.

In this episode, Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham are joined by film programmer and journalist Beth Webb (Empire Magazine, Little White Lies, Bechdel Test Fest) to talk about everyone's favourite forest spirit, My Neighbour Totoro. First released in a double bill with Grave Of The Fireflies in 1988, Totoro was, at first, only a modest success, but thanks to merchandising and some timeless Miyazaki magic, the film has become one of the Studio's most iconic releases, and the character himself serves as Ghibli's company mascot to this day.

Read Beth's 30th anniversary article on My Neighbour Totoro here: http://lwlies.com/articles/my-neighbour-totoro-hayao-miyazaki/

Read Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa's 'fireside chat' here: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosawa_p1.html.

Follow Michael, Jake and Beth on Twitter:

@MichaelJLeader – Michael

@jakehcunningham – Jake

@BethKWebb - Beth

For more details about Film4's Ghibli Season, click here: https://bit.ly/2JYqrBj

Additional production on this episode from Steph Watts - @_stephwatts

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