Ponyo Movie Review

Introduction: On Thursday, November 19, I had the opportunity to see Ponyo, the latest film by Hayao Miyazaki's world-famous animation production team Studio Ghibli on the big screen. (For those still unacquainted with either of these, go here and here) I expected it to be at least half as good as any other Studio Ghibli film, and better than any American animated film. (No offense to Pixar and other great US animation studios) I am very pleased to say that it exceeded my high expectations. While it's not their best work, it's definitely in my top 10 list.

Story: The storyline of the film appears to be inspired by the (frankly quite morbid) Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid, but it bears little similarity with neither the original story nor the Disney film. The film opens with a breathtaking (and very complex) scene
that shows a wide variety of sea creatures, mostly jellyfish. I doubt any Disney animators would approach this type of scene without 75% of the objects being CGI. Indeed, Studio Ghibli tends to favor traditional, hand-drawn, cel animation over computer animation.

As the scene continues, we are taken through a panning shot to a large submarine that looks like a steamboat with fins. A man with long, red hair is shown dumping some type of liquid into the ocean. Minuscule creatures swimming below absorb the stuff and pop into sea creatures. Meanwhile, a small fish with a human head swims out and hops on one of the escaping jellyfish and goes to sleep.

The fish is, of course, Ponyo. After the opening credits roll, we see Ponyo wake up, and a chain of events leads to her becoming stuck in a glass jar. A young boy named Sosuke (Soh-SKAY) finds the jar and cracks it open. Fujimoto, the red-haired man (and Ponyo's father) sends his "water demons" to fetch her, and succeeds. Sosuke is heartbroken, but after some scenes focusing on him, his mother Lisa, and his father Koichi, (I don't want to spoil it) Ponyo and Fujimoto have an argument which ends with Ponyo getting placed in a bubble. As soon as Fujimoto is gone, however, Ponyo's tons of little sisters break her out. Ponyo makes an amazing escape, but as she does so, lots of fish get into her father's store of life-giving elixir, which morphs them into giant waves resembling fish. The Bottom Line: Ponyo has succeeded in becoming human and reuniting with Sosuke, but she has also succeeded in throwing the world out of balance.

Music: Like almost every Miyazaki movie, the musical score is composed by Joe Hisaishi. Like always, Hisaishi's score fits the film perfectly and is amazing. To give you an example of his work, I will post below a video of a song (not from Ponyo, but from another great Studio Ghibli film titled Castle in the Sky) that he conducted an orchestra in playing at a live concert:

Joe Hisaishi Live - LAPUTA: Castle in the Sky
Uploaded by yuunya. - See the latest featured music videos.

English dub: I have not seen the Japanese version, so I can't compare the English dub with the Japanese one. But, I think that the dub of Ponyo is great. True, I have seen better from Disney, (Howl's Moving Castle has the best dub) but I have also seen worse. (*COUGH* Kiki's Delivery Service *COUGH*) Frankie Jonas (one of the little brothers of the Jonas Brothers) and Noah Cyrus (Miley Cyrus' little sister) are pretty solid as the two leads, Ponyo and Sosuke, they sound like real kids. Liam Neeson (Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace), is by far the best voice in the film as Fujimoto. I thought Tina Fey and Matt Damon left something to desire as Sosuke's parents, Lisa and Koichi. They were OK, but they were overall kind of bland. Cate Blanchett did a great job as Ponyo's mother, Gran Manmare. (For some reason her name is never given in the movie, at least in the English version) Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White were overall solid as the tree old ladies, Noriko, Toki, and Yoshie, respectively.

Overall: Like I said, Ponyo isn't Ghibli's best work but it is an amazing film nonetheless. I encourage everyone to see it when it comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on March 3.