Few filmmakers today can boast the feats Hayao Miyazaki has achieved in his few films. The imagination he displays in each film bests the most mind-bending science fiction and fantasy movies within the first few minutes alone. It makes you wonder what a feature combining the talents of Miyazaki and a director like Terry Gilliam or James Cameron would produce. At his best (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), Hayao Miyazaki creates stories with unique, vibrant aesthetics that tell deep, emotional tales appealing to children and adults alike. Since Disney took over U.S. distribution of Studio Ghibli, they've put forth Miyazaki's films and let them retain their purity beyond the Disney stars they use to fill in the American voice acting cast. With Ponyo, there's a sense that Miyazaki may have ceded somewhat to demands from Disney to create a film much more child-centric feature, because this doesn't have that same maturity his other films have.
Hans Christian Andersen's beloved story “The Little Mermaid” gets yet another film recreation, though Ponyo is admittedly much stranger for incorporating Miyazaki's love of environmental themes. Deep below the surface of the ocean lives a man, dressed like a whacked out hipster, married to the sea (quite literally), who keeps the impossibly strong forces of nature in alignment while tending to his daughter Brumhilda. Not one to remain confined in her father's protective grasp, Brumhilda escapes to the surface and washes ashore after an encounter with an ocean trawler, landing in the loving hands of little boy Sosuke. The child assumes Brumhilda to be a goldfish and promptly names her Ponyo, which she accepts enthusiastically. His friends and mother look the other way when it comes to the oddly face-like features of Ponyo, assuming her to be little more than an overgrown fish. In a single day, Sosuke and Ponyo form a quick bond until Ponyo's father (Liam Neeson) sends his watery minions to retrieve her and confines her in his little submarine. Ponyo will not be contained.
She sneaks back out of the submarine - growing arms, legs, and a much more human appearance in the process – but not before opening up a huge wormhole of sorts which threatens to rend time and space mixing two worlds in to one. Ponyo makes it back to shore amidst a ferocious storm and she and Sosuke are reunited where they spend a few happy days as best friends before they set out to look for Sosuke's mother who went to the old person's home during the the calm of the squall. As they journey, the children's friendship blossoms even as Sosuke begins to realize the toll being out of the water is taking on his friend. As they go along, Sosuke learns what it means to love someone unconditionally, Ponyo's father learns a difficult side of fatherhood, and everyone seems far too comfortable with the fact that Ponyo's little friend was once a fish. It's weird, but it's an inherent part of the wonder comprising every Miyazaki film. The reverent attitude of his films towards nature helps to instill that sense of wonder and contributes largely to the wide-eyed expressions of awe that feel so authentic when viewed in the children characters he animates.
Ponyo brings together a respectable cast list including Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White. Disney's mouseketeer puppets Frankie Jonas and Noah Cyrus also star. The best performances come from Blanchett, Damon, and Tomlin, the latter being so good that even knowing its her you can easily forget. Oddly, while I consider Liam Neeson one of my favorites, his voice is ill-suited for the character, the way the character is drawn just doesn't match up with the deeper voice Neeson brings to the table, and it's distracting.
Overall, the film is woefully simple in comparison to Princess Mononoke and even Spirited Away. It comes closer to Kiki's Delivery Service in its pandering to a much younger audience, but it never really builds itself into anything more meaningful than a new take on a timeless classic. If Ponyo will be remembered for anything it's the outstanding aquatic visuals that only an artist like Miyazaki could produce. The Blu-ray high-definition makes Miyazaki's hand-drawn masterpiece shine, but it can only do so much to repair the gap left by the quality of the narrative.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
This is a Blu-ray and DVD combo set, perfect for those families on the brink of updating to high-definition but still want to purchase new films to view today. However, only the Blu-ray disc offers the extra features, so if you only have a DVD player you'll be missing out for now. The extras include an introduction to the film where we get a brief glance into the relationship spawned by Disney and Studio Ghibli, as well as some beautiful storyboard layouts (with Miyazaki's work, these are awesome). The two featurettes have extensive amounts of interview footage with Hayao Miyazaki as they chart the film's conception (including the story and its characters) and the steps a film goes through in production at Studio Ghibli.
"Ponyo" is on sale March 2, 2010 and is rated G. Adventure, Animation, Children & Family. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Starring Betty White, Cate Blanchett, Frankie Jonas, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Noah Lindsey Cyrus.
