Ponyo

by **kyo** Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:15 am

I have never seen even a single one of Miyazakis works in a theatre before... not a one... and so I took the opportunity to see this on in the theatre (English Dubs of course) just yesterday....

Miyazaki did not disappoint... as always there were amazing landscapes... beautifully detailed and very imaginative... The story was simple and straightforward... one could call it a new twist to the story of the little mermaid... but that would not be entirely accurate.... in any case, I found the ending to be just a little weak... maybe it was because of the dubs (somethig lost or perhaps overemphasized in translation), but the lead up to it made me feel like I was about to see something very dramatic, but ended up with something... well... less dramatic...

If you have see his other movies, all the characters in the movie will seem very familiar... even if you cant remember which other characters in the other movies look like them... there are also a few scenes reminiscent of his other works, a scene similar to one from Spirited Away and one bearing similarities to Porco Rosso...

As always Miyazaki leans towards environmental themes and the character of Ponyos father (shown to be a sea spirit or something along those lines) is often seen to be lamenting how wasteful humans are and how many resources they take from the sea while only giving back garbage... the potential dangers of Global warming and altering the balance of nature are also illustrated in the movie (you will see that towards the end)...

All in all it was a wonderful experience... definitely worth a watch... perhaps the subs would be better though.... I dunno if this will come to theatres in India... but if it does... go for it... after seeing this one I am greatly lamenting hte fact that I might never be able to watch works like Porco Rosso, Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle on the big screen...