geek JANE

Rental: Ponyo

aka: Gake no ue no Ponyo
Release Date: US DVD – March 2, 2010
Rating: G – Wonderful for all kids and adults
Starring Voices of: Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Liam Neeson, TIna Fey, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon
A Studio Ghibli Film
Writer/Director: Hayao Miyazaki

I completely adore Hayao Miyazaki’s films and have been a fan of his for a while now but I didn’t get the chance to see Ponyo in theaters so I was really excited for it to come out on DVD. Miyazaki’s films are usually colorful animated fantasy films with a environmentally friendly message and Ponyo is a pretty direct example of that description. I have to say it wasn’t my favorite of his films though and left me wanting a little more to the storyline since it seemed like it was cut a short.

The story is pure fantasy starting out with an absolutely dazzling scene under the ocean with beautifully animated sea life swimming all around. A strangely weathered looking man is there creating sea life from single cell organism that are evolving into fish. We later find out that the man is Ponyo’s father Fujimoto (Neeson) and are introduced to the little goldfish girl Ponyo. The story is basically Miyazaki’s take on The Little Mermaid story with his usual input on the damaged environment and whimsical animation.

The characters of Ponyo (Noah Cyrus) and the little boy she befriends named Sosuke (voiced by the youngest of the Jonas kids Frankie Jonas) are adorable and probably the most childlike of all the films I have seen from Studio Ghibli. I couldn’t help but laugh and giggle at their interactions and how much like real five year olds they were. The dialogue is cute and perfect for younger kids but story wise was a bit all over the place. The characters of both Ponyo’s mother and father are a bit too mysterious and you never actually get an idea of what they are supposed to represent.

Her mother is what I would gather the goddess of mercy Gran Mamare (Blanchett) who also happens to be the daughter of the sea goddess and her father is a former human who now has all kinds of nifty underwater abilities. Ponyo has tons of little sisters who for some reason are smaller and less humanly inclined than her from the very beginning and the explanation for why the earth’s ocean gets so out of wack and the moon gets closer is lacking if not completely missing. I just felt like the hole story was rushed and not a thoroughly written as all the previous Ghibli films I have seen. The ending was a surprise because I couldn’t believe it ended where it did. I was expecting there to be much more to the story.

Bottom Line: STUNNING VISUALLY BUT LACKING IN THE PLOT DEPARTMENT