Recently we introduced John Ramirez, a Disney artist and theme park designer who is a big fan of Japan, and perhaps it's the artist in him that has a particular soft spot for Studio Ghibli and the classic film My Neighbor Totoro. While he enjoys combining his talents and interests in Japan to create fun images, in his spare time he's done something even more ambitious: design a potential Totoro Ride for a theme park.

While it's just a conceptual image, there's a little more gravity to this drawing than your typical fantasy sketch. Ramirez told us that he's spoken to Hayao Miyazaki several times about making the ride a reality at a Disney park, but has been turned down each time as the legendary director is not too big on theme parks. Somehow we don't think Ramirez has been too discouraged from pursuing this dream attraction, and that passion is evident in the attention to detail he has invested in the ride. The charming touch of beginning the ride on an acorn, through your dad's office and into the foresty greens where you encounter Totoro, to even meeting up with the Cat Bus up until the dust sprites give you a bittersweet farewell.

Whether Miyazaki ever caves on this project or not, the imagination shown in crafting this fantasy Totoro ride shows the same sense of charm and adventure that the film has introduced to people all over the world. It also shows that Ramirez has likely seen the movie dozens of times, as he knows its ins and outs!

Either way, Ramirez can at least continue to dream, and show us what Totoro would look like back in the days of traditional Japan.