Please don’t let her turn to sea foam
The story of Ponyo is a simple one. Ponyo, our lead character, is born as a fish and raised by his father Fujimoto. Fujimoto provides magic to his children and keeps them in check. When Ponyo finds her way out of Fujimoto’s underwater ship, after accidentally gulping up a boatload of magic that Fujimoto has captured, she meets a boy named Sosuke. Ponyo falls in love with Sosuke and soon becomes human. Due to her escape, mixed with her powerful magic, Ponyo’s existence in the real world throws the entire world out of balance. If Fujimoto doesn’t get Ponyo back in time then the entire world might be destroyed. The problem is that Ponyo doesn’t know that and Sosuke doesn’t know that; what’s even worse is that Ponyo has no desire to return to the ocean.
Miyazaki has done it again with Ponyo. He has created a world like no other and has made the characters so adorably cute that you simply can’t disconnect from the characters. Ponyo is obnoxiously cute in the film and Miyazaki has captured the perfect formula for kids to relate with his characters. None of the characters are vicious, none are intimidating, and they’re always looking for fun and funny moments. For my kids, they loved this film. The combination of creative images mixed with very vivid colors, and a fantastic storyline, means that kids will instantly connect to the film. .
With that said, the film isn’t perfect. The movie is incredibly short for a Miyazaki film (103 minutes), in comparison to a movie like Spirited Away (125 minutes). The story does feel a tad rushed as there really isn’t a low point of decision-making that exists in all of Miyazaki’s films. For example, in Spirited Away there is a tense moment in the film when Sen must choose which pigs are her parents. Here it really doesn’t have that moment like that. There is an explanation of possible disasters and then the decision is made for the main character. It’s a bit anti-climactic, but the strong characters certainly make up for it.
(SPOILER ALERT)
I have to admit that I’m happy that Ponyo didn’t turn to sea foam. I was thinking about that the entire time.
(SPOILER END)
Per usual, the acting that was brought in really represented the film well. You’ve got an all-star cast led by Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett and Tina Fey (who is fantastic as Lisa). Unlike other Japanese to English translated films it seems that Disney and Ghibli really put a lot of thought into their voice acting. Not to say that others don’t put thought into it, but it always seems like Miyazaki films have the perfect English actors to represent the characters. I know a lot of die-hard Japanese / English subtitle fans are out there, so if you aren’t satisfied with that cast you do have the option to switch to Japanese with subtitles (and yes, the Japanese is in 5.1 as well).
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it’s absolutely beautiful. The blending of simple animation, mixed with the colorful, even playful, rough character drawings makes this film shine in 1080p. The colorful palette that Ghibli has presented the viewer is nothing short of gorgeous. As Disney has done recently, the transformation from film to HD, in regards to its animation, is breathtakingly perfect. The music, as with all Miyazaki films, is hauntingly well crafted. You’ll fall in love with the visual and audio upgrades and end up happy that you bought this on Blu-ray.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– The World of Ghibli- Allows fans to immerse themselves in the amazing worlds from each film created by
legendary filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki in this multi-layered interactive experience.
Lands to explore include:
• PONYO’S Land
• KIKI’S Land
• CASTLE’S Land
• TOTORO’S Land
– Behind the Studio- Unprecedented access to all the background, inspiration and process behind he making of
Ponyo and the inner workings of Studio Ghibli through a series of documentaries. They include all new
interviews with Hayao Miyazaki, and composer Joe Hisaishi.
• Creating Ponyo
• Ponyo & Fujimoto
• The Nursery
• Behind the Microphone: The Voice of Ponyo
• Producers Perspective: Telling the Story
• Scoring Miyazaki
• The Scenery in Ghibli
• Original Japanese Trailer
– Meet Ponyo
– Storyboard Presentation of the Movie
Epic features for a great movie. You’ll love all of the features as there isn’t a boring one on this set.
