Post by Yves on Aug 23, 2009 21:08:12 GMT -5
Ponyo, directed by Hayou Miyazaki, distributed by Disney.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5; A
Hayou Miazaki is best known for his tense, action-packed animated films, like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Ponyo, however, is different. This distinctly childish film is more of a throwback to his old, slow and innocent style, found in films like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. Despite this, Ponyo lives up to the Ghibli Studios name as a beautiful, touching, and, above all, weird film.
The plot revolves around Ponyo, the daughter of a sea goddess and her formerly human husband, Fujimoto. A “fish with a human face,” Ponyo lives with her father in his submarine, which he drives through the sea on his quest to use magic to undo the harm humans have wrought on the ocean.
Yet Ponyo, in the tradition of the Little Mermaid, longs to know about the greater world, so she escapes to human waters, where she promptly gets herself stuck in a glass jar. She is found and rescued, however, by the 5-year old boy, Sosuke. For a time, Ponyo lives in a bucket as Sosuke's pet “goldfish," where she discovers how much she likes ham, licks a cut on Sosuke's thumb—healing it while tasting human blood—and falls in love with her rescuer.
But Fujimoto is not happy to see his daughter kidnapped by “one of those stupid humans,” and, using the magic of the ocean, recaptures Ponyo. The taste of human blood, however, has made Ponyo powerful, and after she is exposed to magical elixirs kept on board Fujimoto's submarine, she is able to turn herself into a human and escape.
For reasons not adequately explained, this “upsets the balance of nature,” which is a pretentious way of saying that the moon comes into a collision course with Earth, causing the oceans to erupt and bury most of Sosuke's island. For equally neglected reasons, the Earth will only be spared annihilation if Sosuke "proves his love for Ponyo," turning her into a human forever.
So what did I think of the film? Well, I was mainly struck by how I could not stop laughing throughout the story. Though enjoyable, the movie is ridiculous. It is a film not merely detached from reality, but which seems to enjoy flaunting it. Let me give you an example.
When Ponyo first escapes from Fujimoto, a typhoon erupts. The ocean comes alive, in one of the movie's most impressive visuals, as a monstrosity of destruction. As Sosuke and his mother drive up their mountain highway, they are terrified by winds strong enough to launch small boys and gargantuan waves that savage the road. When the two finally make it to the top of their mountain, the waves crash together behind them, as the sun appears through the clouds, catching the wall of water in a spout of glory. The cascading droplets transform into hundreds of tiny red fish—all of Ponyo's sisters—as the girl herself walks out in what I like to call her Kentucky Fried Kermit form, half-fish and half-human. She rushes forward, transforming into a human as she runs, and grabs Sosuke, screaming with delight.
When Sosuke explains that this is the fish he had kept a few days before, his mother's reaction is to smile and deliver a calm, over-rehearsed, “life is amazing and mysterious.” In the next scene, she prepares ramen for Ponyo, touting such lines as “Now I've got a surprise for you Ponyo, so close your eyes. No peeking!”
So the movie's main problem—if you can call it a problem—is that it is not a Disney family movie, but strictly a kids' film. It does not try to make any deep or moving point, its characters are superficially happy to the point of being laughably stilted, and there is almost no conflict or tension.
But what the movie does have is beauty. Everything about it is innocent, charming, and occasionally touching. The artwork, much softer than any Ghibli film I've seen, consists mostly of water-color and colored pencil, giving it the nostalgic feel of one of the classic Disney films. Joe Hisaishi's music, though at times a little too similar to Flight of the Valkyries, is as magnificent as ever. And the story, while perhaps simple, is original and happy.
In the end, Ponyo, like Up, is one of those films that reminds me of Disney's original magic. In a world of cliché pop culture stereotypes, cheap potty humor, and such effects-driven monstrosities as G-Force, Ponyo takes children seriously. This is a piece of art that relies on a child-like sense of wonder—a work that strives to capture that awe, and to reflect it back to all audiences. With me, at least, it succeeded.
~
Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5; A
Hayou Miazaki is best known for his tense, action-packed animated films, like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Ponyo, however, is different. This distinctly childish film is more of a throwback to his old, slow and innocent style, found in films like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. Despite this, Ponyo lives up to the Ghibli Studios name as a beautiful, touching, and, above all, weird film.
The plot revolves around Ponyo, the daughter of a sea goddess and her formerly human husband, Fujimoto. A “fish with a human face,” Ponyo lives with her father in his submarine, which he drives through the sea on his quest to use magic to undo the harm humans have wrought on the ocean.
Yet Ponyo, in the tradition of the Little Mermaid, longs to know about the greater world, so she escapes to human waters, where she promptly gets herself stuck in a glass jar. She is found and rescued, however, by the 5-year old boy, Sosuke. For a time, Ponyo lives in a bucket as Sosuke's pet “goldfish," where she discovers how much she likes ham, licks a cut on Sosuke's thumb—healing it while tasting human blood—and falls in love with her rescuer.
But Fujimoto is not happy to see his daughter kidnapped by “one of those stupid humans,” and, using the magic of the ocean, recaptures Ponyo. The taste of human blood, however, has made Ponyo powerful, and after she is exposed to magical elixirs kept on board Fujimoto's submarine, she is able to turn herself into a human and escape.
For reasons not adequately explained, this “upsets the balance of nature,” which is a pretentious way of saying that the moon comes into a collision course with Earth, causing the oceans to erupt and bury most of Sosuke's island. For equally neglected reasons, the Earth will only be spared annihilation if Sosuke "proves his love for Ponyo," turning her into a human forever.
So what did I think of the film? Well, I was mainly struck by how I could not stop laughing throughout the story. Though enjoyable, the movie is ridiculous. It is a film not merely detached from reality, but which seems to enjoy flaunting it. Let me give you an example.
When Ponyo first escapes from Fujimoto, a typhoon erupts. The ocean comes alive, in one of the movie's most impressive visuals, as a monstrosity of destruction. As Sosuke and his mother drive up their mountain highway, they are terrified by winds strong enough to launch small boys and gargantuan waves that savage the road. When the two finally make it to the top of their mountain, the waves crash together behind them, as the sun appears through the clouds, catching the wall of water in a spout of glory. The cascading droplets transform into hundreds of tiny red fish—all of Ponyo's sisters—as the girl herself walks out in what I like to call her Kentucky Fried Kermit form, half-fish and half-human. She rushes forward, transforming into a human as she runs, and grabs Sosuke, screaming with delight.
When Sosuke explains that this is the fish he had kept a few days before, his mother's reaction is to smile and deliver a calm, over-rehearsed, “life is amazing and mysterious.” In the next scene, she prepares ramen for Ponyo, touting such lines as “Now I've got a surprise for you Ponyo, so close your eyes. No peeking!”
So the movie's main problem—if you can call it a problem—is that it is not a Disney family movie, but strictly a kids' film. It does not try to make any deep or moving point, its characters are superficially happy to the point of being laughably stilted, and there is almost no conflict or tension.
But what the movie does have is beauty. Everything about it is innocent, charming, and occasionally touching. The artwork, much softer than any Ghibli film I've seen, consists mostly of water-color and colored pencil, giving it the nostalgic feel of one of the classic Disney films. Joe Hisaishi's music, though at times a little too similar to Flight of the Valkyries, is as magnificent as ever. And the story, while perhaps simple, is original and happy.
In the end, Ponyo, like Up, is one of those films that reminds me of Disney's original magic. In a world of cliché pop culture stereotypes, cheap potty humor, and such effects-driven monstrosities as G-Force, Ponyo takes children seriously. This is a piece of art that relies on a child-like sense of wonder—a work that strives to capture that awe, and to reflect it back to all audiences. With me, at least, it succeeded.
~
