“Ponyo” came out earlier this year and kind of came and went. We wanted to give it a second look.
For anyone who says that traditional animation is dead, I point them to Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master responsible for such works as 1984’s “Laputa: Castle in the Sky,” 1998’s “Princess Mononoke” and 2002’s masterpiece “Spirited Away.” Miyazaki is one of the few remaining holdouts who stubbornly refuses to rely on CGI, and his films are all the better for it. Nothing against computer animation – Pixar has been making quality films in this medium for years – but there’s just something appealingly organic about the hand drawn aesthetic.
Knowing that artists have spent months or even years producing each and every frame of a film is simply more impressive than knowing it was all composed of pixels and wire frames on a computer. Miyazaki’s latest, “Ponyo” (or “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” as it’s known internationally, a title I much prefer to the simplified English version), opens with one of the most visually stunning sequences I’ve seen in any film this year, and some of Miyazaki’s most breathtaking work to date: his colorful vision of a vast undersea kingdom provides a glorious indicator of the film to come. Unlike Miyazaki’s last few films, “Ponyo” is aimed at a much younger crowd, with protagonists who are little more than toddlers, harkening back to director’s earlier films such as 1988’s “My Neighbor Totoro.”
“Ponyo” was inspired by the original story of “The Little Mermaid,” and centers around Sosuke, a little boy who finds a goldfish princess in the sea near his home on a cliff. Quickly becoming attached to his find, he names her Ponyo and soon discovers that she has the ability to talk, and that she longs to become human. The daughter of a powerful wizard and a beautiful goddess, Ponyo has stolen some of her father’s magic and begun to transform into a human girl. She forms a friendship with Sosuke, who vows to help her, even though her absence from the sea begins to create great chaos as her parents use their powers to find her no matter the cost, sending out great waves and storms to bring her back. Like most of Miyazaki’s films, “Ponyo” is a wholly original and wondrous work of art. One could point out problems with the “love” story between the two five year-old protagonists and the commitment they’re diving into at such a young age, but to do so would be to miss the inherent sweetness of the story. Miyazaki has always had a sharp eye for detail, and never is that more on display than it is here.
Watch the subtle ways in which Ponyo changes into a human – she slowly dissolves into an almost half-girl half-chicken creature, the lines in her face becoming less and less defined, less a human and more a blob with legs. It’s a gradual transformation, almost unnoticeable at first, but that’s testament to the great subtlety of Miyazaki’s craft: he’s able to transport his audience into another world, one of fully realized characters and relationships, with real stories and believable flaws. It’s such a rare thing to see a children’s film, let alone one geared toward children this young, that actually takes the time to understand the world from their perspective. Miyazaki, as ever, treats children to entertainment both intelligent and involving.
And though “Ponyo” may not be quite as rich emotionally as ‘Laputa’ and “Spirited Away,” that’s not what Miyazaki’s latest is really aiming for anyway – it’s just a good story, with great empathy toward its innocent characters and meticulous craftsmanship. It’s hard not to hear the sweeping strains of Joe Hisaishi’s joyous score, along with the gorgeous imagery, and not get caught up in Miyazaki’s grand fantasy. It may go down as being a minor work in Miyazaki’s esteemed canon, but if everyone else lived up to Miyzaki’s minor works, then the animation medium would be far better off. [A-] – Matthew Lucas – courtesy of InReviewOnline.