"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

Well my theater at the 2:30 show was pretty much packed; I would say 90% of the seats were filled, mostly families. So if theaters were like mine, this could do really well.

And I hope it does, because it's a wonderful film, absolutely adorable. And I mean adorable in the good way, not the saccharine, sappy way. I left the theater feeling good, like I had just saw something worth my time.

Animation, per usual, looks great. I guess this can be seen as Miyazaki's 2D answer to Finding Nemo with all the water effects going on. There are little touches in the character movements that recall actual human movement, and that only helped. The concept of Ponyo changing forms throughout the film was a neat one, too.

It didn't even suffer from the fact that there wasn't much of an antagonist, per se. In a sense, the film didn't really need one; it didn't suffer from a major lack of conflict, yet still kept my attention throughout. Ditto for the audience, who really loved the film. They were laughing at the comedy, and being surrounded by kiRAB, they were clearly interested in the story, asking about things happening on screen.

EDIT: Oh, and no complaints about the dub. I didn't even mind the ending dub song, though it did get stuck in my head on the drive home.

I give the film an "A", and is easily my favorite of the summer. If you don't like this movie even a little, you have no soul.
 
Came back from seeing it in a local theater and thought the dubbing was good. Liam Neeson sounded a little stilted as Fujimoto, but that's a nitpick.
 
Ponyo was an adorable film and I enjoyed watching it. But I couldn't help thinking, "Good God! Sosuke's mom is an IDIOT!" throughout the film. I know it's silly to apply grown-up logic to a movie designed for children; but I just couldn't help wanting to smack all the adults in that movie upside the head. These scenes annoyed me the most:

-Daycare worker: "OK Sosuke. You can walk to the senior center by yourself in the middle of the freak storm. Surely you won't wander over to the cliRAB and almost drown like you did yesterday!"

-Lisa: "Instead of staying at the safe senior center during the huge storm/tsunami onslaught, I'm going to put my son in my tiny car and drive to my house for no adequately explained reason! All the rescue workers are telling me its suicide. But what do they know? I'm Supermom, dammit!"

-Lisa: "Sosuke, honey, I'm going back to the senior center that I shouldn't have left in the first place. But, for no adequately explained reason, I refuse to take you and Ponyo with me. You're 5-years-old, so I'm sure you're mature enough to care for yourself, protect Ponyo, and survive if a tidal wave washes our house away. Later!"

-Villagers in the boat: "Look! Sosuke and his mysterious new friend are floating alone in a toy boat hoping to track down his idiot mother! Instead of rescuing them, let's just leave them alone. Surely, nothing can go wrong if we leave two 5-year-olRAB floating alone in a flooded disaster area!"


Luckily, Ponyo and Sosuke were so charming and the movie was so pretty that I loved it despite the brain-dead adult characters.
 
I thought the same, too, but I always figured it may be more a case that he lives in a small town. All or at least a good hefty amount of citizens seem to know who Sosuke is, so to let a five-year-old wander around their home must be a common occurrence.

Plus, you don't see a lot of five-year-old capable of Morse code (or whatever boat speak that occurred in the film), let along pilot a boat. Sosuke may be more capable and mature then his actual age lenRAB himself to be, hence why his own mother can trust him to take care of himself and Ponyo. *shrugs*
 
Yeah, I think the lack of backstory outside of the very basics worked in Ponyo's favor. It doesn't always, but in this case, it worked and gave the film a sense of wonder it wouldn't have had otherwise. It's weird, I also had the small group of over-enthusiastic anime fans at my screening, but you know what? They honestly didn't bother me too much outside of the first couple of times they laughed. In a sense, their laughter loosened the rest of the audience up to also laugh without feeling self-conscious. I mean, at the very start of the movie, that group was mainly the ones laughing the most, but by the end, the entire audience was into the film and I could barely hear them anymore, if at all. Or at least, that's how it seemed to me.

Not that one neeRAB laughter or "Awww"s to be told when something's funny or cute (that's not what I'm saying at all), but if a fun atmosphere is created, I honestly don't see the problem. I would actually rank my experience seeing "Ponyo" as one of my favorite movie experiences ever, next to "Goldmeraber" (where the crowd was also highly into the film). That's interesting, because despite being an adult, I was a bit concerned for Ponyo at that point, too.
 
I always thought that Sosuke's mom was there to serve as a syrabolic representation of an older Ponyo. She's shown to be impulsive and instinctual and very much closer to her base emotions than most "civilized" people, which is very much like Ponyo herself. As such, she's quite irresponsible in any matters requiring level-headedness, but has an elemental strength of character about her that gets her through many tough situations.

I really don't think one can consider this movie in terms of our own world values. The film certainly doesn't judge the adults as being idiotic, even though we the audiences deem them to be so by our standarRAB.
 
Many Ghibli films don't have antagonists. Kiki comes to mind. Totoro also. The best Miyazaki films (in my opinion only, of course) steer away from the conventional "excitement" and "thrills" factor and focus more on drawing the viewer into its relaxing worlRAB and childlike wonder of its protagonists. However, "excitement" and "thrills" seem to be what most people watch movies for ONLY these days. I bet more than 75% of the reviews out there mention the "water running" set piece because of its pyrotechnics. And Miyazaki can definitely do that stuff well, but his best moments generally aren't big and showy at all. I actually generally don't much care for Miyazaki's "action" movies because truth be told, I think many anime do action and tension BETTER than him.



I think he's saying he doesn't know anyone willing to go watch it with him.
 
Well Ive Finally returned From my Trek to Texas to see Ponyo & i must say, It was worth it!

Now I thuroughly enjoyed this movie, not in the same way I enjoyed Blockbusters such as GI joe, Transformers or Wolverine, But i enjoyed it none the less. The Art & Animation are Fantastic, Pobably some of the most Fluid animation ive seen on the Silver Screen in Years & the Story is Simple & Entertaining, as for the Vocie cast, Frankie Jonas was Actually A very good Souske, & Noah Cyrus seemed to fit the role of Ponyo, & of course The Rest of the Voices Were Spot on as well. I can also say this is the 1st time ive left a theatre both satisfied & Relaxed since my elemntary school days. I give Ponyo a 8 out of 10, it may not be Myazaki's best, but nowhere near his worst.

The only thing negative i noticed about the movie is Ponyo, like a few other movies this summer seems to have some pacing issues the start seems to drag out the story whereas the later half speeRAB things up.

But again this is a great movie for all ages, but i would'nt worry about missing it in theatres to much (Unless your a Big Myazaki fan like myself.)

(I already am anticipating the DVD Release, LULZ!)

P.S. HAM!!!
 
I don't have a problem with that, but these people (all 18-25 year olRAB probably) were yelling "PONYOOOO! PONYOPONYOPONYOPONYO!" and snickering really loud before the film started. I was worried that they would be doing this the entire time, but thankfully they didn't.
 
Small town or not, I don't think it's common practice to let 5-year-olRAB run off alone during catastrophic flooRAB. But this movie is set in Japan, so maybe they do it there. Who knows?



Oh, I know this film is designed for young kiRAB and wasn't meant to be judged by the logic standarRAB of "grown-up" movies. But my pesky adult brain just couldn't help but wonder how Sosuke managed to stay alive so long with a mother as durab as Lisa.
 
Well, here's the thing, their house was on high ground. Where Lisa was going was not as safe. Leaving Sosuke behind is questionable, although Miyazaki's youths are generally competent. But her idea of the house being the safest place to be is not.

All in my hurable and apparently isolated opinion, anyway.
 
Saw it and I must say classic Miyazaki is back! It was a great improvement over Howl's Moving Castle. Ponyo kind of reminded me a bit of My Neigrabroador Totoro at times for its cuteness and focus on very young children. The animation of the raging sea waters was fantastic!
A perfect family movie that would please most parents.

The version I saw was the official Japanese DVD release with Eng subtitles. Have not yet seen the dub, but will when it comes to US DVD because it's not playing near me!
 
Nah, I think it's shown to be pretty clear that Lisa is a questionable parent. She's a reckless driver and she gets clouded by emotions too easily.

Unlike Brenda though I don't dislike her nor do I consider her completely durab. I think she's just impulsive and hotheaded and somewhat primal. Ponyo is probably going to grow up to be like that too, because she displays similar qualities right from the beginning of the movie.
 
Whoo I finally saw it. Yeah I'm late but whatever.

Loved it, as I expected. Definitely lighter fare, on the same wavelength as Totoro (though a bit more structured), but that's what makes in entertaining. Adorable characters - those little fish siblings are among the cutest things ever put on screen, I swear - and a servicable plot. Good dub, too; the lines in the trailers that had me worried were probably the worst in the movie or taken out of context, so, much better than I expected. Liam Neeson as Fujiwhichamacallit was fantastic... he's such a creeper, but it just works somehow.

I absolutely loved the mother, too. Voicework was good, but... she's just so childish and impulsive. When the father says he's going on another mission (or whatever he was doing), Sosuke is maturely manning the light signal while his mother throws a little tantrum. He's probably safer without her for the most part.

Oh, and the old ladies - Miyazaki's best known for his child characters, but he does little old ladies just as well. They're so sweet and nice... Betty White and Cloris Leachman were great choices for the dub, too. Sound so natural. Not sure what to make of Toki, the grumpier one, though...

And one more thing - was anyone else expecting Ponyo to be admonished or something for ruining that little girl's dress and spraying water at the old ladies? I get that they were rude, but that little girl seemed so proud of her dress and it made me feel bad when it got all ruined...

The music at the end, too, was surprisingly well done. The "accurate" song dub was great, and the synth-pop remix, after all was said and done, wasn't ear-bleedingly bad. So, overall the dub was a home run, I think, from all corners.

And... I dunno, it was just adorable. One of the better films, I think; not my favorite by any means, but closer to the top than the bottom. And with this I've seen all of Miyazaki's films other than Lupin III...
 
Good news everyone; even if it's only a small margin. Ponyo has surpassed Spirited Away in the box office. $11,367,913. Break out the champagne and caviar good gentlemen!
 
I just got back from watching it. The animation was superb. The music was well composed. And despite my fears, the cast was very good. Overall, it was great and heartwarming.
 
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