And here's an interesting transcript from nausicaa.net
SISKEL (who will get progressively more defensive and look on-the-spot,
from here on): No no, I thought it was a GOOD LOOKING film . . . and in
just the way you said . . .
EBERT: Yeah . . . uh-huh.
SISKEL: . . . but it bored me right off the top with the stuff which you
didn't show, because we didn't have clips of it (oops, Troma, shame shame
shame! --BCW), and that is the WHOLE THING about the little DUST BALLS
. . . er (makes a cute gesture indicating the Susuwatari, for
description) . . .
EBERT: Mmm-hhm, mm-hmm.
SISKEL: . . . that they see in their house, and I was so uninterested in
that, and thought that it was so . . . and that took about a half an hour
out of this picture . . .
EBERT: Oh, but that wasn't . . . (pauses)
SISKEL: I wa . . . (stops as Ebert finishes, shakes head)
EBERT: . . . that was just a very MINOR part of the first half of
the . . .
SISKEL: Well, I tell ya, it really bored me. That was . . . that was one
thing, and I . . . I do like a couple of the things that you mentioned
(begins gesturing more); I like the bus at the end, the "CAT . . . BUS",
and the idea that a cat as a bus (EBERT, grim, nods in agreement) is a
really cute thing. And I DO like that it's quiet, and you do make good
comments about the difference between this animated film, a more GENTLE
animated film than the kind of (gestures) "roustabout-kind of pictures we
get, and I . . . (cut off)
EBERT: Well I found . . .
SISKEL (continuing): I . . . I just didn't . . . I was (quietly) bored.
EBERT (over SISKEL): I found it fascinating, and I think looking at it,
if I could, through the eyes of a kid, or remembering what I was like as
a kid . . .
SISKEL: Yeah.
EBERT: . . . the fact that these two people, and their dad, are going to
go live in this house, and it's a new house, and it might be HAUNTED, and
it's next to the big WOODS, it's stuff like that (which) 'is (sic) really
FASCINATING to me if it's handled intelligently, and another thing I like
is that the characters in the movie LOOK REAL, I mean when the, the (sic)
little girls shout, their mouths get real big (does wide hand imitating
gesture that reminds me of when Mei was trying to describe Totoro's grin
--BCW), and it's not like the little kind of (makes hand gesture a la a
hand puppet such as Kermit the Frog--I wish Jim Henson could have lived
to see this film, sniff --BCW) "Barbie doll characters" that you get in a
lot of animation films that . . .
SISKEL (over EBERT): Yeah! Well, you know . . .
EBERT: . . . don't have any individuality, you know . . .
SISKEL: You know, saying that it's BETTER than Saturday morning T.V. is
EASY, but . . . (cut off)
EBERT: Oh, but IT'S MUCH BETTER than THAT . . .
SISKEL: Well, I KNOW that, I KNOW, but . . .
EBERT: This is a REAL treasure!
SISKEL: Well, I didn't think it was that special, we have, well you know,
films about girls--we have LITTLE MERMAID, and Belle in Beauty and the
Beast, I don't think that it's that unusual to be about little girls.