Another theme that runs throughout the film is the importance of family and relationships. The sisters' relationship with each other and with their parents is at the heart of the film, and their experiences in the countryside serve to bring them closer together.

In 2002, Studio Ghibli opened the in Mitaka. Exclusively screened inside their tiny Saturn Theater is a 13-minute short film titled:

Miyazaki believes that animated characters exist in a specific snapshot of time. Totoro is not a franchise; he is a feeling. The film is structured around —the mother’s illness, the move to a new house, the fear of abandonment. By the end of the film, that transition is complete.

None of these are real. And that is precisely the point.