となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro) influenced Avatar: The Last Airbender

Appa's six-legged design from Avatar: The Last Airbender was a direct homage to the Catbus from Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. The show's creators and artists noted that figuring out the anatomy of a multi-legged mammal was tough, so they looked directly to the iconic six-legged Catbus for inspiration when designing Appa's body and movement. While Appa is officially a hybrid of a bison and a manatee, his structure and multi-legged shuffle heavily echo the classic Studio Ghibli creation.