Ponyo (2009) directed by Hayao Miyazaki
I first came to know Hayao Miyazaki through Princes Mononoke, which I thought was quite good, though out of contention for any personal favorites list. Then I watched Spirited Away, which has enormous acclaim. I appreciated it, but only sort of liked it, as it didn't seem to impress upon me the way it did many other people. I was beginning to fear that perhaps I didn't really dig Miyazaki's style. Two highly acclaimed films that I didn't absolutely love (impossibly high expectations, I know) from the so-called father of animation. Maybe it's just not my thing. Then today I watched Ponyo, which I really really enjoyed.
The movie draws its inspiration from the fairytale The Little Mermaid, telling the story of a magical goldfish named Ponyo who gets trapped in a bottle and is washed ashore. She is saved by a young boy named Sosuke who promises to always take care of her. Ponyo then turns human and wishes to stay this way. However, her transformation causes a great disturbance in the balance of the world and soon a violent storm wreaks havoc on the world. The only way to restore balance is for Ponyo to come back to the sea or become fully human, which can only happen through true love between Ponyo and Sosuke. But this isn't really a film you watch for the story. You watch it for the pure joy of watching art in motion. You watch it to have your imagination and sense of child-like wonder reached out to. You watch it because you want to believe in magic. You watch it for its simplicity, its elegance, its charm, and its beautiful innocence. Few other films have made me so happy from just simply watching it.
There is a point in the film, after a big storm where everything is flooded, that I didn't even really care what was going on in the story. I was just awestruck in watching Ponyo and Sosuke simply float around in their toy boat. I imagine the feeling I got from these scenes are similar to the feelings that other people got from the entire experience of Spirited Away. It's just really magical, wonderful, special, and any other superlative you can think of. It is hard to describe the combination of feelings and visual imagery that make these moments so profound; it is simply something that must be seen, or rather experienced.
The animation is deceptively simple but quite beautiful. I know computer animation is all the rage these days, and many of those films do look really good, but in my book, nothing beats a good hand drawn picture. It looks particularly gorgeous on Blu-ray on a big screen TV.
Ponyo is a fantastic children's movie, but I think it is something that can be deeply appreciated by adults as well. Its beauty is in its pure innocence. It brought me back to a time when I was filled with such hope and wonder.
Grade: A
I first came to know Hayao Miyazaki through Princes Mononoke, which I thought was quite good, though out of contention for any personal favorites list. Then I watched Spirited Away, which has enormous acclaim. I appreciated it, but only sort of liked it, as it didn't seem to impress upon me the way it did many other people. I was beginning to fear that perhaps I didn't really dig Miyazaki's style. Two highly acclaimed films that I didn't absolutely love (impossibly high expectations, I know) from the so-called father of animation. Maybe it's just not my thing. Then today I watched Ponyo, which I really really enjoyed.
The movie draws its inspiration from the fairytale The Little Mermaid, telling the story of a magical goldfish named Ponyo who gets trapped in a bottle and is washed ashore. She is saved by a young boy named Sosuke who promises to always take care of her. Ponyo then turns human and wishes to stay this way. However, her transformation causes a great disturbance in the balance of the world and soon a violent storm wreaks havoc on the world. The only way to restore balance is for Ponyo to come back to the sea or become fully human, which can only happen through true love between Ponyo and Sosuke. But this isn't really a film you watch for the story. You watch it for the pure joy of watching art in motion. You watch it to have your imagination and sense of child-like wonder reached out to. You watch it because you want to believe in magic. You watch it for its simplicity, its elegance, its charm, and its beautiful innocence. Few other films have made me so happy from just simply watching it.
There is a point in the film, after a big storm where everything is flooded, that I didn't even really care what was going on in the story. I was just awestruck in watching Ponyo and Sosuke simply float around in their toy boat. I imagine the feeling I got from these scenes are similar to the feelings that other people got from the entire experience of Spirited Away. It's just really magical, wonderful, special, and any other superlative you can think of. It is hard to describe the combination of feelings and visual imagery that make these moments so profound; it is simply something that must be seen, or rather experienced.
The animation is deceptively simple but quite beautiful. I know computer animation is all the rage these days, and many of those films do look really good, but in my book, nothing beats a good hand drawn picture. It looks particularly gorgeous on Blu-ray on a big screen TV.
Ponyo is a fantastic children's movie, but I think it is something that can be deeply appreciated by adults as well. Its beauty is in its pure innocence. It brought me back to a time when I was filled with such hope and wonder.
Grade: A
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