Ponyo On The Cliffs By The Sea

Despite asserting that I wouldn't take my little brothers (New retroactive nicknames: 8yr-old = Blue-Eyes and 6yr-old = Brown-Eyes) to see "Ponyo" since they were really distracting when we saw "Wall-E," I ended taking them anyways.

Mostly because we had two free movie passes and I really didn't feel like going by myself to a G-rated movie. (Though I will make an exception if no one will see "The Princess & The Frog" with me when it comes out). Also, we've been going to a bunch of the free summer kid movies at the theater and their behavior has been pretty excellent.

Well, this excursion turned out better than "Wall-E." Blue-Eyes is still completely incapable of NOT ASKING QUESTIONS CONTINUOUSLY during any film ever (though I eventually fixed that by switching seats to no longer be next to him). And 2 hours was a bit too long for an 8 and 6 year old to not get antsy. Especially if the 6yr-old sits on his feet and then bursts into tears because "My foot hurts so BAD! On the inside!"

Ok, so to get to the actual movie.


I liked it quite a bit. And so did the boys. And so did pretty much all of the other kids and tweens in our theater. "When can be buy it?!?" was Blue-Eyes' first question afterwards.


The plot mostly revolves around a spirited little fish-girl (?) who bonds with a little boy, rebels against her father, and decides to become a human girl. Either way, as fish-girl or human girl, she's pretty damn awesome. Heh, and she loves HAM!


But the animation was cool. It was different, but I actually liked the superposition of the really simple and clean animation mixed with the really fine and detailed hand-drawn stuff. And the "alive ocean" was pretty much the coolest thing ever. The way it bubbled and boiled over. And the fish-shaped waves. So damn cool.


My favorite parts were easily the two kids interacting. But my favorite thing about Miyazaki movies has always been the incredibly realistic children. The kids don't act like wise little adults (the main reason I just CANNOT stand The Peanuts). They act like 5-yr old kids.

The only significant criticism I can come up with was that I couldn't get a solid hold on the mythology they were working with. I don't know if it was the dub's fault (probably not, though, since the Disney dubbings are usually of really high quality), but it was damn confusing in spots. I'm pretty good at just going with the flow though so I didn't get really hung up on anything I didn't understand.

I can't wait for it to come out on dvd so that I can watch it again. And I'd really like to see it at least once with subtitles.