Ponyo

Hayao Miyazaki's latest creation to hit the U.S. is a movie called Ponyo (Japanese Title: Gake no Ue no Ponyo). It's based on the Hans Chrisitan Anderson tale of The Little Mermaid. In Ponyo, a young goldfish with a human face (The idea itself is somewhat creepy but Miyazaki manages to make Ponyo look adorable) goes on land where she is discovered by a five-year-old boy named Sosuke. The two soon become best friends with one another and even fall in love. However, Ponyo's father Fujimoto, who is a powerful sorcerer, takes Ponyo back to the sea somewhere in the middle. In her attempt to become human and rejoin with Sosuke, Ponyo creates a giant tsunami that throws the entire world off balance. The moon is now much closer to the earth, and her gravity is pulling the seas upward. Ponyo's mother, Granmamare, on the other hand, gives Ponyo and Sosuke a chance and tests them. If Sosuke's heart to Ponyo is true then balance would once more be restored and Ponyo would finally become a human. The English dub features talented actors and actresses as voice actors. Noah Cyrus voices Ponyo, Frankie Jonas as Sosuke, Tina Fey as Lisa (Sosuke's mother), Matt Damon as Koichi (Sosuke's father), Liam Neeson as Fujimoto, Cate Blanchett as Granmamare, Lily Tomlin as Toki (a grumpy resident of the nursery home), and Betty White as Yoshie (another, and nicer, resident of the nursery home).

Having been a fan of Miyazaki's works, I was excited to hear about the release of his new movie. However, when I watched it, I was sorely disappointed. It's certainly not one of his best films. The running time for the movie is 100 minutes, but I felt that the movie could have been a good half to one hour shorter. The story seemed to drag on; everything moved by at a slow pace. There was never any clear and present danger (I guess this would make it okay for children to watch). Even when Sosuke is chased by the tsunami, we know that he will never be in any danger and that the movie will be a happy ending. I'm not a major fan of the character Ponyo either. She was cute as a "goldfish" (How anyone could ever mistake her to be a goldfish has been bugging me) but, when she turned into a human, she just became one annoying character, always bouncing around and yelling at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason. Either that or she falls asleep and is just one plain rude goldfish (We see her squirting water at people she doesn't like). There were few humorous scenes in the movie too (I perhaps only counted one). Fujimoto, Ponyo's dad, is by far my most favorite character. He might be somewhat uglier than the usual of Miyazaki's handsome creations, due to his permanently blushed cheeks and blue bags under his eyes, but there's nevertheless he still portrays this graceful character who knows what he's doing and is only out there trying to protect his children and the world from harm. Voiced by Liam Neeson just makes everything a bonus. Too bad everyone just ignores Fujimoto when he gives his "apocalyptic" warnings. Poor guy. Granmamare, on the other hand, just creeps me out. She's this water goddess that is larger than ten boats put together and her large eyes never blink.

In the end, I'm quite sure many will argue with me. Sure, the film can be seen as this magical, poetic, and touching tale about a young goldfish's efforts to become human and reunite with her five-year-old lover (Wow. Only five and he's already in love...). In some sense it can be seen as that "magical" tale (There's certainly magic in it), but I, for one, am not quite seeing the awesomeness people have been claiming in this film.