Ponyo (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]
Welcome to a world where anything is possible! Academy Award® winning director Hayao Miyazaki (2002, Best Animated Feature, Spirited Away) and legendary filmmaker John Lasseter together with Disney bring to life a heartwarming and imaginative telling of Hans Christian Andersen s classic fairy tale The Little Mermaid. A young boy named Sosuke rescues a goldfish named Ponyo, and they embark on a fantastic journey of friendship and discovery before Ponyo s father, a powerful sorcerer, forces her to return to her home in the sea. But Ponyo s desire to be human upsets the delicate balance of nature and triggers a gigantic storm. Only Ponyo s mother, a beautiful sea goddess, can restore nature s balance and make Ponyo s dreams come true. Ponyo will delight your family with its magnificent animation and timeless story.Ponyo confirms Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki’s reputation as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. Loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid,” Ponyo is a magical celebration of innocent love and the fragile beauty of the natural world. The daughter of the sea goddess Gran Mamare (voiced by Cate Blanchett) and the alchemist Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), Ponyo (Noah Cyrus) begins life as an adventurous little goldfish. Chafing at her father’s restrictions, she goes in search of adventure and meets Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), a good-natured 5-year-old who lives by the sea. Sosuke adopts Ponyo and quickly wins her heart. Fujimoto uses magic to bring her back, but Ponyo’s love for Sosuke proves stronger than his elixirs. She transforms herself into a human girl and returns to him during a spectacular storm at sea, but her metamorphosis upsets the balance of nature, precipitating a crisis only Gran Mamare can resolve. Ponyo contains fantastic moments that suggest dreams– and reassert the power of hand-drawn animation to create memorable fantasies: No effects-laden Hollywood feature can match the wonder of Ponyo running along the tops of crashing waves on her way back to Sosuke. Ponyo is closer in tone to My Neighbor Totoro than Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, and will appeal to audiences of all ages, including small children. The #1 film in Japan in 2008, Ponyo earned more than ¥14.9 billion (over US$155 million) to become the 8th highest grossing film in Japanese history. (Rated G: A few scary moments, alcohol use) –Charles Solomon
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Astonishingly Beautiful Animation, an ok Story, but quite scary for young kids
Ponyo has about the most beautiful animation I have ever seen in a movie. It is simply stunning. It seems to live in a world somewhere between Anime and Japanese woodcuts. The large stunning blocks of vibrant colour almost live in themselves and most of the actual things which are chosen to be animated are stunning to - however this does little to hide what seems to be a stilted story which I feel sure has lost something in the translation both of language and culture from Japanese to English.
This is the retold tale, Japanese style, of the little mermaid. Brunhilde is the daughter of a mad scientist and the sea/earth mother. She is a fish like creature who lives in her father’s ship in a bubble under the sea. But she wants more, and in the opening scenes escapes inside a jellyfish, the most beautiful scene to open a movie with.
She ends up being saved from certain death by a little boy, Sosuke, who takes her to school but loses her back to the sea in a rather child-frightening scene where the scientist summons up some fierce and sinister looking waves.
Ponyo (or Brunhilda to her father) returns to Sosuke determined to be a girl. She drinks her father’s elixirs and unbalances the world in the process. The tsunami scenes are both fearfully frightening again for some young children, and hilarious - Ponyo - now a little girl runs along the top of the waves.
It all is resolved and the earth mother talks to Sosuke’s mother and Sosuke says he will love Ponyo forever and all is well with the world again.
The story just didn’t seem to flow. The mother and earth mother talking for long hours. The Old lady who refused to go under water and is taken down anyway, Sosuke and Ponyo’s long, seemingly pointless trip in the boat. The very strange prehistoric fish which swim, seemingly threateningly, under their boat. And why does Sosuke say “pre-cambrian”. I know what Pre-Cambrian is, but is there a point that they are there? Is there a point that he knows? why aren’t there just fish there? Is this because the balance of the world is out? But then why does Sosuke, a 5 year old know?
Sorry, but for me the movie was full of these sort of questions. What was this or that all about? Some is explained but very often I think there is something really important been missed out somehow.
Anyway. It was an all right movie to watch. My 7 year old quite liked it, the 6 year old found it very frightening, and I found it frustrating and full of unexplained things.
5 Stars Another Miyazaki Classic for young and old.
This film has been well summarized and reviewed so let me keep this personal…
I have been a fan of Miyazaki’s work for more years than most folks in the states have known he existed. Like most fans I thought the peak of his artistic achievements were Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. However after having children and rearing them to the age that I thought it worthwhile to begin exposing them to these films (my boy is 6 and my twin girls are 4) I have found a new dimension by which to judge these films. This new dimension is the simplicity of the stories being told and how well their message can be absorbed by young children. What I have found is that Miyazaki’s genius runs deeper than I had originally thought in my art snob anime days. The genius is in the simplicity of some of his stories and how well he is able to strike the balance wherein a story is palatable to younger viewers (4-6) but no less relevant for an adult viewer. And when looking through his body of work you can often find that love for the beauty in simplicity in the worlds he creates. These are simple stories that take place in a larger fantastic world, and all the intricacies of that world need not be explained ad nauseum to the view, we are there for the story and must simply accept the fantastic and magical elements within that story without weighty explanations.
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is a perfect example of a simple story that is told in a way that is both poignant and beautiful to behold. The story is well explained in other reviews so I will leave those bits out and say simply that it is a joy to watch for the whole family and after multiple viewings with the children I find myself just as drawn to the screen as they are. The story lacks the complexity and maturity of Princess Mononoke because it doesn’t require it. The characters are bright and lovably innocent though they exist in an imperfect world were parents have many responsibilities and sometimes can’t make it to dinner because of work. Sosuke is a brave and mature little boy whom you can tell has been shaped that way by the adversities of his family life. For me the character demonstrates that even in a family where work requires much of the parents time that the love they exhibit and express to their child makes up for raising him in an imperfect situation, which I feel is a theme in many other of Miyazaki’s stories such as My Neighbor Totoro. Ponyo is vibrant and always excited in the new world of possibilities that she has found above the water, and though she inadvertently causes some havoc in the world around her, her good natured frolicking tends to make you forget that she is the cause of most of the stories upheaval.
As in most of Miyazaki’s stories there is no true antagonist and the conflict is limited mostly to the natural fallout of Ponyo’s transformation. This however does not take away from the story in my opinion as is usually the case with these movies. Miyazaki’s movies typically end in a spirit of resolution and understanding rather than victory over an enemy which I feel is a great lesson for the kids to understand the concept of moral ambiguity and trying to resolve conflicts through understanding rather than the violent destruction of an uncompromising evil.
Pony has definitely become the favorite movie for now in the house and the kids cannot stop watching it and after having it a few weeks I find myself no less impressed by its charm and of course its visually stunning animation. I would recommend all of Miyazaki’s work to anyone young or old but in particular I would recommend this for houses with younger children as your experience will be enhanced by observing them as they take in all the visuals of this wonderful fantasy story (And be sure to sing along with them to “Ponyo, Ponyo, little fishy in the sea..”). If you enjoy Ponyo I would strongly recommend you follow it closely with “The Cat Returns” and “My Neighbor Totoro”
3 Stars Decent movie, was slightly disappointed
The following was originally posted to the Ponyo Theatrical Release:
First off, let me say that Miyazaki is one of my favorite directors and animators. Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Whisper of the Heart are just some of my favorites.
The problem I had is two-fold: 1) The animation was, IMO, sub-par. As another reviewer mentions Miyazaki aimed this movie at 5 year olds, well I’m not letting them have all the fun in what may be his last movie, so 1 ticket please! But I digress, Lisa’s character (voiced by Tina Fey) was not well drawn, Look at her body symmetry, specifically her legs, as an example. I’ve seen art for children and frankly it can be done better or worse, depending on the illustrator. Since I’ve seen most, if not all his previous work, I guess I was expecting better. The attention to detail found in previous works was missing here. 2) The story was simple enough, again aimed at 5 year olds. But, in addition to being somewhat slow, it begs the question: What value did Sosuke’s Dad bring to the story? He could have been left out completely as far as I can tell. Also, compared to Chihiro, I think Sosuke’s test was simultaneously anti-climactic and daunting. In order to bring balance to the world’s oceans a 5 year old is expected to love someone he has just met? I mean, a test of bravery would have been better, again IMO, to show his true character. I also think the audience might have responded to this a little better. Finally, such a star-studded cast. Wow, talk about wasting talent. I’m sure the fact that Miyazaki’s films haven’t done well in US theaters might be part of the motivation, and it did work, but unless you are good at picking out voices, most of the characters don’t get enough voice time to matter much. Now granted, I didn’t go to the movie to hear Cloris Leachman or Lily Tomlin, but I was expecting a little more screen time for Liam Neeson’s Dad.
I’ve been waiting for this movie to hit theaters for a year, and this might be the reason I’m being a little hard on the movie, but Miyazaki is not getting any younger and I’d like to think he plans on going out on a high note.
I know that what I’ve done is probably equivalent to punching a kitten, and I’m likely to get roasted by my fellow reviewers, but this was not my intention, just my opinion, so spare me the righteous indignation please. BTW, my 9 year old daughter loved the movie and wants to see it again.
5 Stars A world of pure imagination
The mother Lisa has the most poignant line in “Ponyo,” saying the equivalent of “When you find yourself surrounded by magic and wonder, you don’t try and understand it you just enjoy it.”
To me, that is the theme and lesson of “Ponyo” (”Gake no Ue no Ponyou” or “Ponyo on the Cliffs”). After dabbling in darker themes and more adult-orientated fare like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, Miyazaki has returned to the lighter, simpler themes of the magic and mystery of childhood as found in his groundbreaking My Neighbor Totoro. One can always tell the target audience for a Miyazaki film by the age of the main character: “Spirited Away” was made for 10-year olds, “Princess Mononoke” was made for teenagers. The lead characters in “Ponyo” are 5 years old.
Like “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Ponyo” is a film based on a childlike sense of joy and imagination. There is no need for a “villain” or some arbitrary conflict or threat for the children to overcome. Like Satsuki and Mei, Sosuke and Ponyo are pure at heart, and open to exploring the wonders around them. They feel their emotions without cynicism or thought, instead living in the moment and experiencing its joys, sorrows and fears.
Which is not to say there is no depth here. In “Ponyo,” Miyazaki has blended two unlikely sources; Richard Wagner’s pounding opera Die Walkure from Der Ring Des Nibelungen and Hans Christian Anderson’s melancholy fairy tale The Little Mermaid. The essential set-up comes from “Die Walkure,” where the god Wotan holds the goddess Freia captive, and is also the possessor of the Rhinegold Ring which grants vast magical powers so long as one gives up all possibility of love. As a nod to this, the name Ponyo is giving by her father is Brünnhilde, one of the Valkyrie who feels the power of the Ring and must make the choice between love and paradise. This story is skillfully blended with Anderson’s “Little Mermaid,” about a sea creature who must win the love of a human or be reduced to soulless sea foam.
Miyazaki essentially presents two movies. The front film is basic, colorful and easy to understand for children. The animation in “Ponyo” is some of the best that I have ever seen, with Miyazaki personally drawing much of the underwater and ocean scenes, utilizing the influence of classic Japanese ukiyo-e pictures. Miyazaki has said that “Ponyo” is his most technically complicated film, using more unique images than any previous film.
The second, deeper story is something that can only be assembled from fragments and snatches of conversation. For example, the wizard Fujimoto, Ponyo’s father, was a human being who fell in love with the ocean goddess Gran Mammare, and struggled for centuries to burn away his humanity and become consort and protector for the entity he loved. More than anyone, he understands the sacrifices and struggles awaiting Ponyo when she loves someone not of her world. These story/sub-story elements are one of the things I love so much about Japanese film, where more expectations are put on the audience to read between the lines and to give thought to the unspoken as well as the spoken
I am not sure how much of this deeper story survived the translation into English, as I watched the film in Japanese. There are some nuances that probably went missing, and I am curious as to how some of the scenes were handled, such as when Lisa sings Sosuke a part of the theme song to “My Neighbor Totoro” to cheer him up when his father is not home. Some other things, such as the significance of tunnels in Japanese folklore (considered the realm of female Mountain Gods who are prone to jealousy, it is assumed that the tunnel would not take kindly to a water deity passing through. However, outside the tunnel is a statue of Jizo, the protector of children, which sends a visual clue to the audience that Sosuke and Ponyo are going to be alright.) also might pass unnoticed or appear confusing to Western audiences, although every Japanese person would inately understand this without needing to be told.
Miyazaki proved in “Ponyo” that he is still the greatest director of animated films alive. I am so thrilled to have seen this movie, and I know I will watch it again and again.
5 Stars Beautiful, imaginative, NOT scary
In an age where the majority of children’s movies have inappropriate language or potty humor, sexual suggestiveness, stereotypical gender roles, and a good deal of violence and fighting, the films of Hiyao Miyazaki are a breath of fresh air. My children are 4 and 6 and they absolutely LOVED this movie. We saw it in the theater twice. As others have said, the animation is incredibly beautiful. The characters are unique, the story is imaginative and wondrous. Sure, maybe every detail is not explained, but this is a children’s film — children don’t need every detail to be explained. The story moves along in a dreamlike way, much the same way that a child’s imagination flows.
As far as the film being scary, my four-year-old was a bit frightened of Ponyo’s father at first. However, this movie is so tame compared to most children’s movies today. My children were much more frightened by the baby who burst into flames in The Incredibles and the monsters who scare children in Monsters, Inc. than they were by Ponyo. I think it is partly because Ponyo is so surreal and dreamlike where many children’s movies have an element of reality to them. There is no doubt in the viewer’s mind that this film is make-believe — perhaps this is why it did not scare my children as much as other Disney films.
Anyway, I highly recommend this movie, particularly for children ages 4-7. The animation is extraordinary, the characters are loveable, and it is overall just a refreshing change from other children’s movies today.
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