The latest offering from Studio Ghibli and legendary film animator Hayao Miyazaki is a G-Rated tale of a fish who wants to become a human. The fish, Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), is the daughter of underwater spirit Fujimoto (Liam Neeson) and Gran Mamare (Cate Blanchett) who encounters a young human boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) who takes her in and takes care of her, despite her extremely odd appearance. The story that follows is a straight-forward affair that is equal parts Little Mermaid and Pinocchio as Ponyo tries to stay human while her father tries to bring her home.Ponyo is without a doubt one of the purest expressions of the core concepts that Miyazaki has been utilizing for years. There's lots of alusions to the damage humans have done to the environment without quite becoming heavy handed or preachy (though it is close at times), there's a 'villain' who isn't evil, but rather misguided, and there are characters who accept absolutely fantastic concepts like water gods and goldfish becoming humans without the slightest bat of an eye. It's not the best Miyazaki story out there, but it is one of the more charming ones. Just like Kiki's Delivery Service there's no particularly major conflict to the story, it's just a journey of discovery. Even the disaster of a tidal wave absorbing all the city does little to dispel everyone's good mood, and the structures and roadworks now beneath the waves are entirely unscathed by the encounter. It's one of those idealistic and absurd events that only a select few could possibly pull off, and Miyazaki is one of the best of them.
Which isn't to say that the story is absolutely perfect, this is very clearly a kid's movie through and through. We're not talking Dora the Explorer levels of simplicity here, but at the same time this is not an overly complex story. The only shades of gray in the story come from Fujimoto, who is the nominal villain of the story although he's not evil, just overbearing. He's ultimately motivated to (over)protect his daughter from what he perceives as the corrupted human world, but aside from his tidal wave never does anything outwardly aggressive (yes, in real life a tidal wave would be an extremely aggressive act, but here it's just one of those things and no one really cares beyond the fact that it's an inconvenience). Even when he could do evil and nasty things he doesn't, he simply wants to protect Ponyo and he steps aside with no protest when it becomes clear that she wants to continue to walk the path of humanity. Cackling, ranting villain he is not.
At the end of the day if you've never seen a Miyazaki film before there are worse places to start, but there are also better (Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky come to mind). If you are caring for a youngish child that you need to distract for a while Ponyo should more than get the job done, and you won't be bored in the process. All told it's cute, it's enjoyable, it's richly animated and it's largely cynic free (which is a refreshing change every once in a while, even for a Cranky Kitty like me).
No comments:
Post a Comment