Catbus
Encyclopedia
The is a character in the Studio Ghibli
film My Neighbor Totoro
, directed by Hayao Miyazaki
. It is a large creature, depicted as a grinning male cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus
, complete with windows and seats coated with fur, and a large bushy tail. The character's popularity has led to its use in a spinoff film, toys for children, an art car, and being featured in a museum, among other products and influences.
-like legs, it runs, flies, bounces, and hops across forests and lakes to reach its destination, making whole rice
fields sway in its wake. Its eyes shine a yellow light brightly like headlamps to guide it. Mice with glowing eyes suspended next to its destination sign on its forehead and from its rear serve as tail lights. It is visibly male.
With its large elongated smile and its ability to appear and disappear at will, the Catbus is reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat
from Alice in Wonderland. Often used to transport Totoros, in the film it makes an exception to help O-Totoro, the main Totoro, who is also the biggest. O-Totoro calls the Catbus and asks it to help Satsuki find her lost sister Mei. As Satsuki boards it, its destination sign changes to "Mei." After the sisters are reunited, the Catbus volunteers to whisk Mei and Satsuki over the countryside to see their hospitalized mother. After Satsuki and Mei return home, the Catbus finally leaves them, its body fading into the evening shadows.
. In the film Mei, the younger sister, meets the child of the original Catbus, which is simply named Kittenbus. It is just large enough to fit Mei inside, and can only stir up dust devils
. They fly into the forest with many other cat-based vehicles, including different types of catbuses and cattrains, which are carrying Totoro and many other forest spirits to a catliner, which is depicted as an ancient cat. Mei meets O-Totoro and befriends the catliner, before returning in the kittenbus to her home.
The Catbus has been produced as a popular plush toy and as a con-vehicle. It also was used as a design base for the six-legged sky bison Appa on Avatar the Last Airbender.
Studio Ghibli
is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...
film My Neighbor Totoro
My Neighbor Totoro
, is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan...
, directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
. It is a large creature, depicted as a grinning male cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
, complete with windows and seats coated with fur, and a large bushy tail. The character's popularity has led to its use in a spinoff film, toys for children, an art car, and being featured in a museum, among other products and influences.
Character description
A door magically appears when a person would like to board it to travel. With its multiple caterpillarCaterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
-like legs, it runs, flies, bounces, and hops across forests and lakes to reach its destination, making whole rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
fields sway in its wake. Its eyes shine a yellow light brightly like headlamps to guide it. Mice with glowing eyes suspended next to its destination sign on its forehead and from its rear serve as tail lights. It is visibly male.
With its large elongated smile and its ability to appear and disappear at will, the Catbus is reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat
Cheshire Cat
The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll's depiction of it in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Known for his distinctive mischievous grin, the Cheshire Cat has had a notable impact on popular culture.-Origins:...
from Alice in Wonderland. Often used to transport Totoros, in the film it makes an exception to help O-Totoro, the main Totoro, who is also the biggest. O-Totoro calls the Catbus and asks it to help Satsuki find her lost sister Mei. As Satsuki boards it, its destination sign changes to "Mei." After the sisters are reunited, the Catbus volunteers to whisk Mei and Satsuki over the countryside to see their hospitalized mother. After Satsuki and Mei return home, the Catbus finally leaves them, its body fading into the evening shadows.
Use outside the original film
The Catbus was also featured in the short 20-minute film Mei and the Kittenbus, which is shown only in the Ghibli MuseumGhibli Museum
is a museum featuring the Japanese anime work of Studio Ghibli, and is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a western suburb of Tokyo, Japan.The museum is a fine arts museum, but does not take the concept of a usual fine arts museum. With many features that are child-oriented and a sprawling and...
. In the film Mei, the younger sister, meets the child of the original Catbus, which is simply named Kittenbus. It is just large enough to fit Mei inside, and can only stir up dust devils
Dust Devils
Dust Devils is an independently published role-playing game set in the Old West, written by Matt Snyder. It was voted the 2002 Indie RPG of the Year; it also won the Best Synergy of Game and Rules category, as well as placing in the Best Production and Most Innovative Game categories.The game uses...
. They fly into the forest with many other cat-based vehicles, including different types of catbuses and cattrains, which are carrying Totoro and many other forest spirits to a catliner, which is depicted as an ancient cat. Mei meets O-Totoro and befriends the catliner, before returning in the kittenbus to her home.
The Catbus has been produced as a popular plush toy and as a con-vehicle. It also was used as a design base for the six-legged sky bison Appa on Avatar the Last Airbender.
See also
- My Neighbor TotoroMy Neighbor Totoro, is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan...
- List of fictional cats
- BakenekoBakenekoA is, in Japanese folklore, a cat with supernatural abilities akin to those of the fox or raccoon dog. A cat may become a bakeneko in a number of ways: it may reach a certain age, be kept for a certain number of years, grow to a certain size, or be allowed to keep a long tail. In the last case,...
, Japanese superstition that if a cat grows old enough, it gains shapeshiftingMetamorphosisMetamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...
skills