Ponyo (2008)

[崖の上のポニョ]

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Tomoko Yamaguchi, Kazushige Nagashima, Yuki Amami

Synopsis:
A boy finds a human-faced fish with magic powers.

Impressions:
Seeing this in the theaters was one of the last things I did before leaving Japan on my first time over there, a fitting bookend as one of the first things I did was watch Ghibli's previous film. Let me get the bad out the way right now. Narratively speaking, I feel this is the weakest of Miyazaki's films. It just kind of rambles along. I feel like they were trying to recapture the spirit of Totoro but not quite succeeding. That's not to say I didn't like the film, just that I wouldn't rank it up there among my favorite entries in Miyazaki's filmography. Now let's go on to the positive. There's no CG used in this movie, so I really appreciate it on an artistic level. Also, the way the movie was used to reconcile Miyazaki with his son also makes it worthwhile. There's a lot of charm to be had even if it's just watching Sousuke and Ponyo playing around. The characters are engaging even if the plot is on the thin side. One thing that bugged me about the movie, other than Risa's wildly irresponsible parenting, is the fact that Sousuke addresses his parents by name. This is something I've never seen in Japan and some of my Japanese associates hadn't either. I looked for some explanations online and haven't been entirely convinced on the answers provided. For some reason I decided to put on the Spanish subtitle track and it was funny that they didn't do that at all (Spanish speakers being more sensitive to a lack of filial piety, I guess). You may find it an odd point to dwell on, but it's always bugged me. Anyway, this is definitely worth watching at the very least and if you're a big enough Miyazaki/Ghibli fan, you'll probably want it in your collection too.

Rating:
Watch It