Catbus
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- For public transportation in Raleigh, NC - CAT busses - please see Capital Area Transit (Raleigh).
- For the Clemson, SC Transit System also known as CATbus, see Clemson Area Transit.
The Catbus (or ねこのバス, Neko no basu) is one of the two most recognizable characters in the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is a large creature, depicted as a grinning cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus, complete with windows and seats coated with fur, and a large bushy tail. A door magically appears when a person would like to board it to travel. With its multiple caterpillar-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 and from its rump serve as running and tail lights. The Catbus is visibly male, as can be seen during minutes 79-81 of the film.
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With its large elongated smile and its ability to appear and disappear at will, 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 the O-Totoro. When O-Totoro asked it to help Satsuki find her lost sister Mei, its destination sign read "Mei". After the sisters are reunited, the Catbus volunteers to whisk Mei and Satsuki over the countryside to see their hospital bound mother. When the Catbus finally leaves them, its body fades into the evening shadows.
The Catbus was also featured in the short 20-minute film Mei and the Kittenbus, which is shown only in the Ghibli Museum. 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 to her home in the kittenbus.
The Catbus has been produced as a popular plush toy, and as a con-vehicle [1] It was also used as a design base for the six-legged air bison on Avatar the Last Airbender.[2]
[edit] See also
- My Neighbor Totoro
- List of fictional cats
- Bakeneko, Japanese superstition that if a cat grows old enough, it gains shapeshifting skills
