My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

This Ends at Prom

Brennan Klein

Tv & Film, Arts, Film Reviews, Society & Culture

4.8 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Try laughing, then whatever scares you will go away."

Few films capture the magic of girlhood quite like MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, one of the few films that actually prioritizes the perspective of children rather than an "all-ages" affair. This week, The Wives Colangelo are recontextualizing their feelings about Hayao Miyazaki's classic fantasy tale, and celebrating his objective masterpiece exploring imagination, nature, age-appropriate anxiety, and adorable forest spirits.

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Article Mentioned

Towards a True Children’s Cinema: on My Neighbor Totoro: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2017/03/13/towards-a-true-childrens-cinema-on-my-neighbor-totoro/

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Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/thisendsatprom

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MONTHLY SPOTLIGHT

The Flytrap Media (https://www.theflytrapmedia.com)

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Social Media Plugs

@ThisEndsAtProm

@BJColangelo

@HarmonyColangelo

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Logo Design: Haley Doodles @HaleyDoodleDo

Theme Song: The Sonder Bombs 'Title': https://thesonderbombs.bandcamp.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Greetings and salutations, and welcome to This Ends at Prom.
0:05.2	A coming-of-age podcast highlighting cinema about or marketed towards teen girls.
0:10.3	I'm one of your hosts, BJ Colangelo, and I'm joined by my wife.
0:14.6	Harmony Colangelo, a trans woman who grew up watching none of these movies.
0:18.9	Is today's movie a Queen Bee?
0:20.9	Or are we killing the teen dream?
0:23.2	Get in loser.
0:24.4	We're analyzing the movies.
0:25.8	People make fun of us for loving.
0:28.4	I don't want to be your merch girl.
0:31.5	I want to be here goddamn idol.
0:35.3	And I don't want to have to work twice as hard for the same motherfucking title but I
0:42.3	realize that I probably won't be so lucky.
1:00.0	The dad in this movie and I have a lot in common because I, too, have always wanted to live in a haunted house.
1:10.7	That makes sense. Yeah. You do love the haunted mansion. I do love the haunted mansion and I would be very down with hanging out with Sitzprice. I'd probably get a little annoyed by how dirty my feet would get, but... Well, they leave. I could deal. Okay, yeah. I could deal. I'd make room for them. They're too cute.
1:44.4	I think I'm just at a point where like a quaint little cottage just sounds nice. Doesn't it just? I feel like it would drive me nuts, but just like, God, this is why people go to the fucking desert, isn't it? It's why people in L.A. are just like, I had to get out to Joshua Tree for the weekend. and I was like, oh, God, we're at this point now.
1:47.4	Hello, Brown Party.
1:48.4	We are... Joshua tree for the weekend and I was like oh god we're at this point now hello prom party we are talking this week about my neighbor tootero to tototo do toro yeah that theme is great because of
1:58.7	the minor key at the end there that gives you that little
2:01.4	bit of like, ah, that that's why that song works.
2:05.1	Anyway, yes, I'm so excited.
2:07.3	Okay, so tell me why you're excited.
	...

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