Ponyo directed and animated by Hayao Miyazaki
Buy It Now: from Amazon: DVD
Ponyo is also available on Netflix’s Instant Queue
Description: Welcome to a world where anything is possible! Academy Award winning director Hayao Miyazaki (2002, Best Animated Feature, Spirited Away) and legendary filmmaker John Lasseter together with Disney bring to life a heartwarming and imaginative telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Little Mermaid. A young boy named Sosuke rescues a goldfish named Ponyo, and they embark on a fantastic journey of friendship and discovery before Ponyo’s father, a powerful sorcerer, forces her to return to her home in the sea. But Ponyo’s desire to be human upsets the delicate balance of nature and triggers a gigantic storm. Only Ponyo’s mother, a beautiful sea goddess, can restore nature s balance and make Ponyo’s dreams come true. Ponyo will delight your family with its magnificent animation and timeless story.
This review is based on a copy I bought.
StrangenessAbounds’s Review:
Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ Gake no Ue no Ponyo) is Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, released in 2008 in Japan and 2009 in the United States. Melissa Mathison (of E.T. fame) wrote the American script and she did an excellent job, as I would expect from her. Ponyo is a children’s film, but this doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to watch, regardless of your age. I found myself laughing throughout much of the film because it was just so darn cute!
For me, there is nothing like feasting my eyes on the fantastic art created under Miyazaki in this film. The imagination behind the art is as simple as it is mind-boggling. There is a scene after Sosuke’s island has flooded in which Sosuke and Ponyo (in her little girl form) are floating above the roads and trees, and beneath the surface of the water, there are all kinds of sea life swimming around. The schools of fish are amazing in their fluidity and Ponyo’s sea spirit mother is gorgeously imagined, just to name a few examples. As a relevant side note, Miyazaki doesn’t use computer graphics as a primary tool – he uses them to enhance movement. Everything else is done by hand.
The story is simple in the Miyazaki tradition. There is no extra information, no unnecessary background information, no excessive moralizing and no storytelling feints (like confusing flashbacks). This is due in part to the fact that Ponyo is a children’s movie, however, I think an adult would appreciate the fact that Ponyo doesn’t smash its subtleties into their head. Miyazaki films have always been pro-woman and pro-environment, but I’ve never felt as though I was being preached at, like many American movies do (*coughHappyFeetcough*). However, I thought it was odd that just Ponyo’s departure from the sea world disturbed the balance of the entire world. How did Ponyo become so special that things became upset? Would this have happened for one of her sisters?
One thing that I appreciate about Disney taking on the project of localizing Miyazaki’s films is that they tend to find excellent American voice actors. Many, many times, I end up resenting the dubs that American companies seem to slap on otherwise fairly good Japanese movies (I’m looking at you, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children). But Disney does not falter in its quest to give Miyazaki’s films the best in terms of wonderful voices. Liam Neeson acts as Ponyo’s father, Cate Blanchett as Ponyo’s mother, and Betty White as an elderly resident in the nursing home where Sosuke’s mother works. In this case, the presence of well-known stars is an asset as opposed to a liability.
Not only would I recommend Ponyo, I would also strongly recommend it to parents of children. From what I’ve observed, kids don’t remember the moralizing that so many TV shows and children’s movies do. Many kids seem to remember the fantastic, and Miyazaki’s Ponyo knows fantastic.
Reviews Elsewhere
Rotten Tomatoes
The New York Times
Time Magazine
KidsTVMovies.About.com
