Executive Producer: Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Executive Music: Joe Hisaishi
Animation Director: Yoshiharu Sato
Exective Background Stylist: Kazuo Oga
Production Camera Supervisor: Hisao Shirai
Producer and Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Mei, Satsuki, and their father were taking a bath when they hear strange noises. Their father suddenly began to laugh saying that if they do, the dust bunnies would leave them alone. Satsuki then followed her father and started laughing. Mei didn't want to laugh, because she didn't want to admit that she was scared. Satsuki began tickling her, so she would laugh; and she did. The dust bunnies eventually left their house.
Satsuki started school, so Mei had to stay home with her father. She wandered around their back yard by herself picking flowers as her father worked in the house. She saw acorns on the ground and picked them up. She noticed a white shadowy creature (Chibi Totoro) walking pass, so she followed right behind it. The Chibi Totoro noticed they she was following, so it immediately turned invisible, but Mei spotted it again once it turned visible again. She quickly chased it to the bottom of a house and squatted outside waiting for it to come out. She didn't realize that it, along with a bigger blue one (Chu Totoro) was sneaking out behind her.
Unfortunately, Chu Totoro had drops some acorns from it's baggage and caught Mei's attention. She began chasing after them and was led into the forest. She fell into a hold on a big tree and landed on something soft. To her surprise, it was a great big gray Totoro. They tickled it's nose and it went back to sleep. Mei dozed off herself.
Satsuki returned from school and realized that Mei was missing. She and her father went searching for her. Satsuki found her hat and proceded into that direction. She found Mei sleeping on the ground inside the forest. Mei woke up looking for the Totoro, but it was nowhere in sight. She told her father and Satsuki all about it. At first, they laughed at her, but they started believing that she had really seen a Totoro seeing how serious she was. Only good, lucky children were able to see a Totoro, and it would bring good luck to whoever had a chance to see one.
The professor took his girls to visit their ill mother in the hospital. They told their mother all about the Totoros. Their father told them that their mother might be well enough to come home next week. The girls were very excited. The professor had to go in for a meeting at the university, so he couldn't watch Mei. Since Satsuki had to go to school, Mei had to stay with Nanny. Unfortunately, Mei refused to stay with Nanny and made her take her to Satsuki's school. Satsuki ended up taking Mei to her class for the rest of the school day.
After school, it started raining on their way home. Kenta, the shy boy next door, gave the girls his umbrella and ran home wet. Realizing that their father didn't bring an umbrella, Satsuki decided to bring one to him. Mei went along with her. They waited at the bus stop for a very long time, but he still didn't arrive. Mei got sleepy and Satsuki had to carry her on her back along with their umbrella. Satsuki noticed something furry standing next to her and looked up to find that it was a Totoro. Seeing that Totoro was getting wet, she handed Totoro her extra umbrella, the one she brought for her father. Totoro was very happy with the umbrella and shouted. Mei woke up from the loud noise. In return for the umbrella, Totoro gave the girls a package of seeds wrapped in bamboo leaves before it aboarded a cat bus. Their father arrived on a bus moments after the cat bus left.
The planted the seeds in their garden. Mei squatted in from of them waiting and watching for them to grow. They were waken from their sleep by the Totoros dancing around their little garden. They went outside and joined the Totoros in their dance. Suddenly, their garden sprouted and began to grow into one enormous tree, huge enough to cover over their whole house. The girls woke up the next morning and found that there was no tree. Instead, their seeds had already sproutted.
The girls went picking some vegetable with Nanny in her garden, and they sat and ate some afterwards. Mei picked a corn for her mother thinking that it would make her feel better if she ate it. Kenta rushed in with an emergency telegram from the hospital. Satsuki panicked, thinking that something bad had happened to their mother. She called her father to inform him about the telegram. Mei decided to bring the corn to her mother after Satsuki yelled at her.
Kenta's father gathered a bunch of people to go search for the missing Mei. Out of desparation, Satsuki went to the big tree and begged it to help her find her sister. She fell into a hole in the tree, the same one that Mei fell in, and landed on a Totoro. She informed Totoro about what happened and asked for it's help. Totoro called for for cat bus, and Satsuki rode in it in search for Mei. They eventually found her. The cat bus then took the two to the hospital, and they sat on a tree watching in through the window. They overheard that their mother was coming home a week later due to a cold. Mei left the corn outside the window with "For Mother..." scratched on it. They then went back to their place, and Nanny was there to greet them with relief to see that they were okay.
Summary by: Swallow