First of all, keep in mind that this was made exclusively for the Ghibli museum in Japan. It has never been officially released outside of the museum, and the film itself has never been solidly leaked online either. Your only way to watch it is to either go to the museum or watch one of the few camrip versions. The camrips are not pretty, but it's not like they will prevent you from getting any enjoyment out of it. With that said, it's time to review the film itself. This is a short film that takes place after the events of My Neighbor Totoro. The youngersister, Mei, meets the child of the Catbus, and they do a little bit of exploring. It's cute, just like My Neighbor Totoro was. However, it is still only a 15 minute short. The "story" is more of a series of short interactions between Mei and various magical creatures. It should go without saying, but there was no conflict whatsoever.
Artwork is well done, in the same style as My Neighbor Totoro. At multiple points during this short film, they managed to include the signature Ghibli imagery of a young girl innocently interacting with something that most people would find to be off-putting. Gives you the idea that she's so innocent that she doesn't know that she's supposed to be bothered by it. I wont give you an example, since it would count as a spoiler, but you'll know what I mean if you watch it.
Sound is greatly lacking. The background music was just some edited version of the intro song from My Neighbor Totoro(which was used as background music throughout Totoro as well) and I found it to be fairly boring, since it was pretty much just repeating over and over over the course of the short film. Also, and this is my opinion which may anger other Ghibli fanatics, Mei's voice acting is poor. It puts me on edge because it is far too loud and abrasive. I know it is meant to mimic the energy of a spunky young girl, but its just too loud for comfort. Again, that is my opinion, and you'll have to watch it yourself to make any final judgment on the topic.
Characters are fine. Mei, Totoro, and Catbus were already established in My Neighbor Totoro, and you get about as much character depth out of Kittenbus as you could hope to get out of a magical cat that lets people ride around in its body.
Enjoyment: I thought it was cute. Its main goal was to drive home the feeling of childish innocence and playfulness, and it succeeded. I enjoyed it as an extra bonus to Totoro.
Overall, I think it's a nice extra. Could it have made a good stand-alone film? Absolutely not. You would be bored and potentially confused if you watched this before watching My Neighbor Totoro. Just watch it if you wanna feel nostalgic about Totoro.
PS: You can torrent the camrip off of Bakabt. The one on Bakabt has fantastic audio and it is subbed. I have no idea whether My Anime List gets angry if you talk about torrents in your reviews, but oh well.
Mixed Feelings
If you're here, you've probably seen Totoro and want to see even more Totoro, however, it might come as a shocker that this movie was almost singlehandedly aimed at people who complained about how little screentime the Bus Cat got. It's almost as Miyazaki is evening the odds for all kinds of fans of the movie. The story at hand could slide anywhere midst of the movie's plot of sometime afterward, as Mei goes about a story of her own in the mystical world of Totoro and friends. As she follows the dust bunnies around, she seems more and more from what the invisible worldaround her is like, meeting new friends and making more bonds.
The whole thing wasn't any big on dialogue, almost stands as a musical short side movie of Tonari no Totoro.
Recommended
The only LEGAL way to watch this sequel is to visit the Ghibli museum in Japan and hope that they're showing it while you're there. However, like generations before, you can find bootleg in theatre footage of this movie and watch it the cheap way. Obviously, you're missing out on a lot of what would make this experience special, but you can still understand what this would feel like to watch in person. Like all Ghibli movies the art and sound is very good. The characters and story are cute, but considering the length of the film there's not much that could be done with themin less than 15 minutes. What this really is is for people who watched My Neighbor Totoro and said "I want a little bit more cuteness from this story" and that's exactly what you get. You get a little kittenbus, and a granny catbus, as well as other cute and fantastical creatures.
It's a fun little film that you should definitely watch in person if you ever get the chance, but most of us probably watched a bootleg of it and still had fun.
