SPOTLIGHTS
|
|
|
|
|
| Ponyo Review |
| Posted by Erik Luers on 08.19.2009 |
| |
|
| |
Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo is a sweet, good natured, warmhearted, sincere film that made me smile. The kids in the film, Sozuke and Ponyo, are so kind and brave that you may want to adopt them by the time the end credits roll. There's been a lot of talk about how kids have had it much harder growing up these days, and while that's true, Ponyo shows children as uncomplicated vessels wanting to be loved. Sozuke misses his father off at sea, Ponyo misses her mother and fears her father, etc.
This is a story about parents and their children, and sometimes their inability to connect. Everyone in the film has the best intentions, but sometimes they are perceived as evil or distant due to their inability to understand another point of view (Ponyo's father). It's the youth and the old trying to see eye to eye (the old age home shows the elderly as child like, playful and honest).
The film also deals a lot with the ocean and its lively inhabitants, and Miyazaki sheds light on a disastrous aspect: pollution. The sea is littered with garbage left over by the humans, and Ponyo's father(himself a former human)is bitter and ashamed. Is he an overbearing parent? Perhaps, but he is just trying to protect his daughter. Ironically, Ponyo first meets Sozuke when she gets stuck in a glass jar; pollution brings them together.
The animation is first rate, and it's refreshing to a see an intricate 2D animated film. Every frame in this movie is alive, bursting with movement. Viewing the film with a lot of little children, I could hear the "oos" and the "ahhs" whenever the random sea creatures crawled across the screen, and I think I heard a few parents too. Oh, and the ocean is alive and has surveying eyes, which in turn plays an important role in the film. And when the entire town gets flooded and engulfed in water, the effect is stunning and creative; Sozuke and Ponyo literally ride above the city.
Online film critic James Berdanelli writes on the film, "not as narratively sophisticated as other Miyazaki films, but stunning to behold." I agree with the second part. In regards to his first point I ask, how is it not "sophisticated"? It's a film about children and their needs, and Miyazaki serves that admirably. Is it a somewhat slight movie? Not if your absorbing it on a purely emotional level. There's a scene where Ponyo chases Sozuki and his mother, quickly driving up a hill to avoid a tsunami,hoping to return to her new best friend. It's a great moment, and it almost brought me to tears. It's a selfless moment and it sums up the entire film perfectly.
Final Rating: 8/10 |
| |
|
