Channel Frederator Blog

My Inspiration Totoro

August 6th, 2008

There’s a worthy charity/animation event coming up this fall: The Totoro Forest Project. Over 200 pieces of artwork (many by folks from the cartoon community) will be exhibited and auctioned to raise funds to support the Totoro Forest Foundation. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki was one of the original contributors to the foundation, which seeks to protect an urban forest, called Sayama Hills, located just outside of Tokyo. The area is known to be the inspiration for his feature film Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro).

This is the official Totoro Forest Foundation website. And go here to learn more about the charity event and view an online gallery of Totoro-inspired images. The project will also publish a tie-in book and selected artwork will be exhibited at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco from September 20-December 7.

The auction is set for September 6 at the Pixar Animation Studio Campus from 5-9 PM. Tickets will go on sale soon. Naturally, this promises to be a swanky time for a good cause.

(The sample show image below is by concept artist Erwin Madrid. See the work-in-progress on his blog.)