My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Excited about reuniting with their ailing mother, close-knit sisters Satsuki and Mei embark on an exciting adventure when they move with their loving professor father to a new house in the verdant countryside of 1950s summer Japan. Now, nothing can stop them. And with mum in the hospital, the girls have all the time in the world to explore nature and the dense adjacent forest, the home of bashful mystical creatures only children can see. Under the clear blue sky's cloudless bliss and the bright yellow sun's promise of a luminous future, nothing can blemish the young sisters' flawless fantasy--not even life's trying times. After all, mother is getting better. Then, one radiant morning, as the shimmering green leaves of the towering camphor trees swayed in the soft morning breeze, the wide-eyed siblings stumbled upon a Totoro. But who is the enchanting visitor? Will the rotund neighbour, with his fluffy fur and mysterious eyes, be the girls' forever friend?—Nick Riganas