Let’s address the big Totoro in the room right up front, shall we? , a new animated feature heading soon to Netflix, is not a Studio Ghibli film, though it looks and sounds an awful lot like one. There’s a good reason for that: comes from Studio Ponoc, the animation house founded by ex-Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura ( , , ). The name “Ponoc” was inspired by the Croatian word for “midnight,” as in the start of a brand new day.
Since opening in 2015, Studio Ponoc has released a handful of shorts and an anthology, but is the only studio’s second feature-length film, after the excellent . A very promising start, indeed. Directed by Yoshiuki Momose, a former animator and storyboard artist who worked on many Studio Ghibli projects, including , and is infused with a delightful sense of wonder, as you might expect from someone with those titles on their resume.
The story was adapted from a 2014 children’s novel of the same name by British author A.F. Harrold.
At its heart is the relationship between a young girl named Amanda Shuffleup (voiced in the English dub by Evie Kiszel) and her imaginary friend Rudger (Louie Rudge-Buchanan). In her fantastically decorated attic room Amanda conjures exciting adventures for them both, like sledding down a snowy hill in a cardboard box, swimming through a colorful ocean, or soaring through the sky on a giant bird. Amanda’s mother Lizzie (Haley Atwell) can’t see or hear Rudger, but mostly tolerates her daughter’s flights .