Welcome To A World Where Anything Is Possible.
The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.
Genre(s): Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Runtime: 103 minutes
Rating: 8.0/10 (6,233 votes)
Release Date: 19 July 2008
Country: Japan
Languages: Japanese
Company: Studio Ghibli
Sound: Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES
Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki
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Producer(s):
Steve Alpert - producer (english version)
Naoya Fujimaki - co-executive producer
Ryoichi Fukuyama - co-executive producer
Koji Hoshino - executive producer
Kathleen Kennedy - producer (english version)
John Lasseter - executive producer (english version)
Frank Marshall - producer (english version)
Hayao Miyazaki - executive producer
Seiji Okuda - co-executive producer
Toshio Suzuki - producer
Writer(s):
Hayao Miyazaki - (written by)
Cast:
Yuria Nara - Ponyo (voice: Japanese Version)
Hiroki Doi - Sosuke (voice: Japanese Version)
Jôji Tokoro - Fujimoto (voice: Japanese Version)
Tomoko Yamaguchi - Risa (voice: Japanese Version)
Yuki Amami - Guranmamare (voice: Japanese Version)
Kazushige Nagashima - Kôichi (voice: Japanese Version)
Akiko Yano - Ponyo no kyôdai (voice: Japanese Version)
Shinichi Hatori - Anchorman (voice: Japanese Version)
Tokie Hidari - Kayo (voice: Japanese Version)
Eimi Hiraoka - Kumiko (voice: Japanese Version)
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Steve Alpert - producer (english version)
Naoya Fujimaki - co-executive producer
Ryoichi Fukuyama - co-executive producer
Koji Hoshino - executive producer
Kathleen Kennedy - producer (english version)
John Lasseter - executive producer (english version)
Frank Marshall - producer (english version)
Hayao Miyazaki - executive producer
Seiji Okuda - co-executive producer
Toshio Suzuki - producer
Writer(s):
Hayao Miyazaki - (written by)
Cast:
Yuria Nara - Ponyo (voice: Japanese Version)
Hiroki Doi - Sosuke (voice: Japanese Version)
Jôji Tokoro - Fujimoto (voice: Japanese Version)
Tomoko Yamaguchi - Risa (voice: Japanese Version)
Yuki Amami - Guranmamare (voice: Japanese Version)
Kazushige Nagashima - Kôichi (voice: Japanese Version)
Akiko Yano - Ponyo no kyôdai (voice: Japanese Version)
Shinichi Hatori - Anchorman (voice: Japanese Version)
Tokie Hidari - Kayo (voice: Japanese Version)
Eimi Hiraoka - Kumiko (voice: Japanese Version)
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Posted on: August 4, 2009
August 23rd, 2009
Hayao Miyazaki, the talented director who brought us the Oscarnominated Howl's Moving Castle, has hit another solid effort with hislatest, Ponyo. With breathtaking animation, Miyazaki has shown USaudiences that regular animation is still a good sell and can stillfind its way into the viewer's heart.
The film tells the story of Ponyo, a young-ling from the ocean whoventures out and falls in love with young Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), anadventurous five year old with responsibility and strong desire forlife. Things turn a bit sour when Ponyo's father (Liam Neeson), goes tosearch for his daughter and turns the town upside down.
Without giving anything away, Ponyo has great pace, colors, andcharacter quality but where Miyazaki conquers on those tasks, he failsin a lazy and thoughtless ending. In those final twenty minutes,Miyazaki loses all credibility we had with Ponyo and loses its audiencewith unanswered questions and quick anecdotes.
The great thing about the piece is Miyazaki throws us into a story oflove, youth, and innocence. Capturing something missed from youth,Ponyo reminds us of the beauty of life and love and in the smallest andunique places; we can enjoy and find these things. Ponyo is still amust-see for any animated film lover and enchants even the darkest ofsouls.
August 23rd, 2009
After watching this movie, I'd have to say that Hayao Miyazaki has notdisappointed me so far. I have watched every ounce of the film both inits original Japanese version and the U.S. dubbed version and no matterwhich one I watched, it was definitely worth every penny to watch atthe movie theater!
So, the plot is all about a goldfish named Ponyo who longs to become areal human girl after she is rescued by a human boy named Sosuke.Though her father doesn't seem to approve of this, nothing can seem todrive the two apart.
Overall, I thought the animation was awesome and that choosing the U.S.voice actors was really clever. Ever since Miyazaki won his Oscar forhis previous film "Spirited Away," he proved that Japanese anime is notoverrated. It doesn't matter what form of animation medium is chosen,as long as the story proves enough to impress an audience. According towhat Miyazaki had to say at his visit in San Diego Comic Con, he wasinspired by Disney's 1989 adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" to createthis movie (except this is like looking through the perspective of afive year old rather than a sixteen year old). I thought the endingcould have expanded a bit more further than shown (though I won't spoilthat end). Anyway, this movie will definitely be worthy in a MiyazakiDVD collection.
August 23rd, 2009
The film was an updated version of the classic story of The LittleMermaid, and it was beautiful in the sense that everyone in the filmseems to accept that the magic of Ponyo and her family exists. I thinkthat not a lot of animators take advantage of the suspension ofdisbelief that persists within this genre, but Miyazaki creates a worldin which anything is possible and in doing so breaks the divide betweenanimation and real life. In his doing so, we are sucked into thatworld, and so while I was watching Ponyo turn into a little girl, Icompletely believed that it could happen. The thing I loved about itwas that the mother, Lisa, accepts it too! A lot of children's movies(like Return to Oz) put this barrier between adults and children thatallows children to believe and adults to not believe (in whatever themovie happens to be promoting). Yet, Ponyo made it completely naturalfor magical things to happen and for everyone to accept them.
Another thing I loved about the movie was the animation, which wasdrawn by hand. It has a softness and smoothness that Disney used tohave before they discovered the use of computers. The attention todetail is astounding, and I found myself watching every inch of thescreen so that I wouldn't miss anything. And I mean anything. Thepictures are so fluid that upon watching I breathed a sigh of relief atnot having to watch something created on a computer. It gets tiring,you know? It's nice to know that I'm looking at, well, art. Moving art,that is.
The only thing that disconcerted me was the ending. It came tooquickly, and you'll understand what I mean if you watch the movie. Iwon't give anything away, but I was expecting more conflict. I haveread the original story of The Little Mermaid, and I was interested inseeing what direction this story would take.
August 26th, 2009
Few would argue that master animation director Hayao Miyazaki is one ofthe few to hold this ability.
(No. Too many are focused on John Lassiter's "amazing" ability to stealother movies plots, turn them into pretty puppet shows and then belauded as a genius . . . but i digress.)
Miyazaki has given us film after film that deals with important matureissues (usually ecologically themed), and has an intelligent scriptthat even the most jaded viewer who would normally despise any filmthat was animated could thoroughly enjoy if given the chance. Still,Miyazaki (almost) never forgets who will undoubtedly be in the audienceof these movies- children.
That said, I am at a loss to think of another filmmaker with thisability. Where else are you going to have a film where a three year old(my nephew Link) will sit still throughout the move, enthralled, a 7year old (my niece Amber) loving it all her own (and able to appreciatethe "star power" of Frankie Jonas and Noah Cyrus, a 12 year old (mynephew Aaron) who's review was "of course it was good! EverythingMiyazaki-san does is good!," a 32 year old animation fan brought totears by the powerful directing and gorgeous animation (er, that wouldbe me), and a 58 year old woman (my mother) able to connect with themother characters (and I'm betting the older charas too) and loving the"cuteness" of the child characters.
And that is what I respect most about Miyazaki-san. He seems to speakto his audience in a completely different way than the averagefilmmaker. On the surface, "Ponyo" could be seen as a simple storyabout a little fish-girl who gets a taste of the human world and wantsto join it and the friend she makes there, a little boy names Soske(somewhat like "The Little Mermaid"), but there is an entire differentlevel at play here. True to form, Miyazaki populates his film withintensely strong female characters Ponyo's Mother, Soske's mother, theolder ladies in a nursing home are all genuine characters with minds oftheir own and extremely strong willed.
But the girl who takes the cake is Ponyo herself. Once she decides thatshe likes the human world, she simply uses her own will to achieve herdreams. Her father is trying to keep her innocent, and keep her amagical fish, but young Ponyo knows what she wants and becomes humanout of simply her own determination.
Once human, she teams up with her friend, Soske, whom she loves verymuch (although maybe not as much as ham). Soske is asked to be the manof the house (at age five) when his mother Lisa decides she has to helpthe people at the rest home where she works during a typhoon that hasbeen inadvertently caused by Ponyo on her quest to become human.Frankie Jonas (yes. He's related to the Jonas brothers. Can we just getpast that please?) gives, perhaps, the best performance in the film asyoung Soske (which is good since he has the most lines). His characteris also strong willed, but also very respectful and friendly-characteristics you're not likely to find in a child character on THISside of the Pacific.
In the end, Ponyo's father, Fujimoto must cope with his daughter'sdecision and his estranges wife's wishes to allow her to be human. Hehopes that Ponyo and Soske will "remember him fondly." And once again,Miyazaki REFUSES to allow a character to become the stereotypical "badguy." Although Miyazaki has (for some reason) received some criticismfor this, it is, honestly, what makes his movies magical and yetrelatable. No one in real life is completely a "bad person." All humansare various shades of gray. And that is exactly what Miyazaki does withhis characters.
And then there's the animation itself. In a time when CGI wouldcertainly have helped with the copious amounts of effects shots in thisfilm, especially the water, Miyazaki has chosen to incorporate NO CGIwhatsoever. Certainly the hand drawn animation was colored by digitalmeans, but every film in this was hand-drawn and I, for one, wasextremely grateful for that. The character animation was extremelyfluid, and there even appeared to be some lip-sync going on (quiteunusual for an anime film). The backgrounds seemed to be rendered withcolored pencil and had an effect all its own on the audience. This iswhat animation used to look like- and what it SHOULD look like.
In the end, I found Ponyo to be thoroughly enjoyable. Certainly notMiyazaki's best (in my opinion, that honor is still held by Kiki'sDelivery Service), but still a 10-star fun movie for the ENTIRE family.
August 27th, 2009
"Ponyo", the latest film by master animation director Hayao Miyazaki,isn't a masterpiece like many of his other works but is still wonderfulnone the less. It is gorgeous (as usual), fantastic, touching andadorable.
Based loosely on "The Little Mermaid", it's the story of a youngfish-like creature who meets a small boy, falls in love with him, anddecides she wants to be human. There's more to it than that, but I'llleave it at that because I don't want to give too much away.
The animation is just beautiful. It has the brightest, most vibrantcolors you'll see outside of a child's picture book and many of thecharacters have an eye catching design.
I also need to give credit to Joe Hiashi and his score. Hiashi's musicis almost every Studio Ghibi movie and is great. Here, he's at hisbest. I found the music soothing, soaring, or stirring, depending onthe scene.
There's a colorful cast of characters, from the title character (cuteboth as fish and as human), to Souske, the boy she meets who grows up alittle as the movie goes along to their families, including Ponyo'shundreds of little (and I do mean little) sisters and wizard father,who looks like a cross between an 80s rock star and a clown.
If the film has a flaw, it's that there's a lack of conflict andsuspense. Even "My Neighor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service"manages to give their characters some big problems to deal with. Here,when something goes wrong, it's solved rather quickly. Maybe a littleTOO quickly…
Also, the movie peaks part way through. There's a wonderful scene withPonyo running on the ocean waves during a storm after she's turnedhuman while Souske and his mom drive up drive up a cliff side road toget away from the waves that is just exhilarating and marvelous. Butafter that, things start to go downhill and the movie slowly runs outof steam until the end.
"Ponyo" is not a classic masterpiece of animation like "Spirited Away"or "My Neighbor Totoro" and I'm not even gonna bother comparing it to"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" and "Princess Mononoke" if justbecause it's so different in style and tone. But it's still a HayaoMiyazaki movie. And that means an animated film that is beautiful andmoving.
August 29th, 2009
Ponyo is a story of a boy who finds a fish in a jar almost watched upon sea named Ponyo, and how his love for Ponyo will decide the fate ofmankind. Liam Neeson does a great job as Fujimoto, Ponyo's underseafather trying to get her back to save all of mankind. Ponyo is the rarefamily film (and a type of one we got a couple of other times thisyear), and that type of film is a film both kids and adults will love.Both kids and adults will love the bright colors and cool visualeffects. Although, both kids and adults will find themselves bored forabout the last 20 minutes of the film. This particular part of the filmtended to drag on, and on, and on, and on. That said, it doesn't meanthe movie's bad. It's still definitely worth seeing. This just meansit's not a perfect family film like Up. Yes, it pains me to complainabout anything having to do with Hayao Miyazaki's films, but even me, ahuge fan of Miyazaki's, tended to find it boring towards the end. Butthe voices, not only by Liam Neeson, but by Matt Damon, Tina Fey, andBetty White among others are perfect, and the movie is more thanvisually stunning enough to capture both kid's and adult'simaginations. Definitely one worth checking out.
August 30th, 2009
Being in Toronto for a convention that deals with anime meant Icouldn't leave the city without actually seeing an anime film, right?Lucky for us, the new Hayao Miyazaki film Gake no ue no Ponyo wasplaying at the local multiplex just minutes from our hotel. Distributedlike his previous few films in the United States by Disney, from itsJapanese Studio Ghibli origins, Ponyo ports the vision of its creatorin beautiful animation and color with the inclusion of new Hollywoodactors to dub in the script. With talent such as Tina Fey, Matt Damon,Betty White, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Cate Blanchett, it becomesall about whether the story grabs you and takes you along for itsjourney. There are no subtitles or "bad acting" to make note of, no,the story is key. And was it good enough? In my opinion—not really.Definitely the weakest of Miyazaki's films that I've had the pleasureof watching, Ponyo may work wonderfully for the young children, butunfortunately that is where its success ends. Besides trying to make acomment on humanity's interaction with nature, there really isn'tanything more than a cute tale to keep the kiddies occupied for an hourand a half.
It's all about young Ponyo, a fish parented by Fujimoto, a human whohas decided to leave dry land for the ocean, and Gran Mamare, a sort ofGod of the sea. Given magic by her father, Ponyo wants to utilize hernew power and explore the world; soon finding herself stuck in a glassjar right outside the Cliffside home of Sosuke, a five-year-old boy whoenjoys animals. He sees this hurt goldfish and tries to revive her, ineffect accidentally allowing her to taste his human blood, which allowsfor her eventual transformation to human form. Fujimoto attempts tobring her back to the fold and keep a tenuous balance in the worldwhole, (ocean vs. land), but realizes she has become too powerful forhim to subdue. Contacting her mother and consulting with her, hedecides to let his daughter stay above water if her love for Sosuke,and his for her, is true. Risking her destruction if the love isn'tpure, he knows that it is now up to her to restore balance, bringingthe magic of the ocean back, away from the humans who may not be ableto control it.
Even from the beginning, devoid of voice, only a colorful display ofoceanic life, the animation is gorgeous to watch, but sometimesoverabundant in its jam-packed frame. The opening scene, watchingPonyo's escape for the surface, makes you a bit disoriented, notknowing what is happening. Are all those little fish her children? Isthe creepy water lord Fujimoto a hunter on the search for her? Thefamilial relationship between these characters really doesn't becomeknown until later on. Once the magic is released, however, and these"fish with faces" unleash the tsunami prophesized by the elderly Toki,a resident at Sosuke's mother's retirement home, it all makes sense andthe audience can just sit back and revel in the artistry at work. Agolden glow emits forth and changes aquatic animals into powerful fishand alters the water itself into a school of powerful fish-like waves,slowly rising higher and higher as the moon gets closer and closer,raising the tide—the planetary proximity having been thrown off by thehuman metamorphosis of Ponyo. The waves themselves reminded me ofHokusai Katsushika and his "Great Wave off Kanagawa" woodcut; theartistic comparisons are definitely there throughout, melded withMiyazaki's signature style to become his own.
An attempt at infusing the story with an environmentally friendly bentis quickly tossed to the side as the quick retorts of Fujimoto and hisdisdain for humanity's unclean living become nonexistent. The storybecomes more about the love between these two new friends and theacceptance of someone different as equal. Sosuke knows his friend usedto be a fish, but his love for her doesn't waver as a result. Eventhough his father is a fisherman himself, gone long stretches at sea onhis large boat, the bond this girl and he create is too powerful toallow for petty differences to interfere. So, in that regard, Ponyo isa great film for the youngsters to make them laugh, get them excitedfrom the tension of the giant storm and search for Sosuke's mother, aswell as help them to understand the meaning of tolerance. It is a cutefilm, well worth your time, and successful at bringing a smile to yourface. Unfortunately, it is from the mind of Miyazaki, whose previousworks have held such layered storytelling, captivating on so manylevels and reaching viewers of all ages. Maybe Hayao wanted to tell asimple story and nothing more. If that is the case, bravo, I guess Ijust wanted more.
August 31st, 2009
Many films end with two very definitive words: The End. At least theyonce did. "The End" is no longer in vogue and a good thing too. Suchdramatic closure is often unfit for most movies, and corrupts ournotion of the characters' lives continuing and developing well past theclosing credits. Even Casablanca finishes with those two closing words;I was under the impression that it was supposed to be the beginning ofa beautiful friendship. Ponyo, the new film by the great Japaneseanimator Hayao Miyazaki, does not contain the word "end." Instead, atthe start of the film, Miyazaki gives us the caption: The Beginning. Atfirst I thought this was a subtle joke by Miyazaki, considering thatthis is the man who has announced his retirement after his last threefilms, but soon realized that the film is about new beginnings, and theexperience of watching it is akin to a rebirth. Miyazaki has crafted apiece of art that is so pure and innocent that while I was watchingPonyo every malevolent thought and action in my life was evaporated andall that remained was the pure optimism and hope of a beginning.
Read my full review at http://cfilmc.com/ponyo/