"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

Not only does this make Ponyo Ghibli's most successful feature in America, but the most successful animated movie from Japan not to be based on a toy!
 
Ponyo still holRAB the 9 spot on Box office mojo and has a full domestic (estimate) growth of $5,233,143. If the second weekend does well, then this film will most likely pass spirited away if possible. (I hope.)
 
I thought the film was good. The beginning felt it was going to be a preachy environmental film, but quickly dusted away from that and concentrated on the main plot. Some of the animation was basic and simple such as the scene where Ponyo walking right out of the tidal waves towarRAB Sosuke's home holding the green pail which refers back to early, hand drawn animation compared to the computer generated animation today. I don't think Hayao Miyazki wanted viewers to question deeply about the relationship between Sosuke and Ponyo since both characters acted innocent and have don't have a full understanding of the world. They are basically five year olRAB here.
 
Castle in the Sky and Castle of Cagliostro beg to differ.



I partially agree with you there. Porco Rosso is my favorite Miyazaki film. But this one did have exciting visuals and thrills nonetheless.



That's not necessarily true. Otherwise, comedies and [strike]chick flicks[/strike] date movies wouldn't be doing well. Who'd have thought The Hangover would do so well? In my opinion, generally the blockbuster movies that do well are the ones with big visuals and special effects that deliver thrills, stuff that really takes advantage of a nice, big movie theater screen. This is the stuff that's generally worth paying the price of admission for. Thankfully, light romps like Ponyo can also look great on a movie screen, although not do financially as well as I would hope, but it's still great to have the opportunity to watch anime in the theater.



Yeah, I'd agree with you there. However, he makes really good attempts.


I'm man enough to admit that I teared up during the "Mother Sea" opening sequence. Joe Hisaishi is a master.
 
Wow! I'm glad Ponyo beat Spirited Away. Haha. I actually liked Ponyo WAY better than Spirited Away, even though Spirited Away had a better story line. I thought Ponyo was really good at what it intended to be, which was a cute movie. :]
 
Castle in the sky is the exception, Castle of Cagliostro does not really count since it's a Lupin the Third movie and not really a Miyazaki movie even though he directed it.
 
I just saw it today. When it was over, I have to admit, I didn't know what to think. Did I like it? Did I not like it? I wasn't sure. After letting it sink in for a while though, I decided that, yes, I did like it. I liked it a lot. The animation was brilliant, the art was beautiful, the characters were cute, the dubbing was pretty good too. The pacing, at times, felt a little strange. And Lisa didn't seemed all that shocked that the fish came back to her house in the form of a human. But, whatever, it was a very fun movie. Not Miyazaki's best, but it was still a lot of fun.

There were more people in the theater than I thought there would be. A bunch of little girls were sitting by me and started dancing around and singing the song during the end credits. So I guess they liked it.
 
I thought the dubbing was really good. Definitely one of the best Miyazaki dubs. Honestly, I think that those kiRAB could do children's voices in anime and make it convincing.
 
I actually saw this movie on opening night a few weeks ago, but I'm just now deciding to give my thoughts on it.

First of all, I have to say that the animation and setting of this movie was off the freaking charts. I loved the artwork of that one scene with Ponyo running on the waves chasing Sosuke and his mom along that cliff. Just thought it was really epic and by far the best scene in the movie.

Now that I got that out of the way, the actual movie was pretty decent. I wasn't amazed by any means, but I thought it was a great movie for the purpose it served. Most of the voice-work was done well in my opinion, aside from Ponyo, who was kinda grating on the ears for me personally. I just thought she was over-enthusiastic on well....everything. Maybe that's supposed to be her character, but for me it was just kind of annoying. Major props to Matt Damon on his work for Fujimoto though. I wish we could have found out a lot more about his character. Even with the little exposure he really had in the movie, he seemed to be the deepest character by far.
 
Yeah, except they're celebrites and probably won't likely do another anime dubbing anytime soon.

There's other good VAs that do good childrens' voices. And even actual children (although they're probably too old now) like the girl who did Anita's voice in R.O.D The TV or Alphonse's voice in Fullmetal Alchemist.
 
Saw it this Sunday afternoon. Including myself, the theater had about 25-30 people attending.

Naturally, it was good and very enjoyable. About what I expect from Ghibli, it offered lots of fantastic visuals even with the relative simplicity. Many scenes are a delight to watch simply due to the charm and energy of human Ponyo. Probably my favorite sequence was Ponyo chasing Sosuke's car, running on the waves the whole way while Sosuke's mom is driving like a pro. Probably my favorite moment in general was Sosuke trading light signals with his dad as his ship passes by, his mother sending him a barrage of angry "bug off!" messages for not coming home when he was supposed to, and Sosuke consoling her afterwarRAB. That's nice, heartfelt stuff.

Now, to me, this is a really light movie. Great for kiRAB and fun to watch in general. That said, here's where I have some criticism. Because it's so light, unlike Roger Ebert I would put Howl's Moving Castle ahead of this, and I'll also add that this wouldn't break into my top three Ghibli movies. Let me be clear that Ponyo is a fun adventure that stanRAB proudly among Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service, but I just wouldn't give it top billing and certainly not five stars. I completely agree with the comment in Weatherman's review that there isn't much depth.

Why? For one thing, there's development. Chihiro went through quite a lot as her character grew in Spirited Away, for example. Not as much in Sosuke's case, and to me the writing for the end was extremely straightforward. I was interested in how Sosuke's "love" would be "tested," but it wasn't really. He was brought to the sea goddess, he's basically asked if he loves ponyo, he says yes, and that's the end of it. And Ponyo was attached to Sosuke for the entire movie, so it was completely natural that she'd give up magic to stay human. So the adventure comes to a natural end, but the movie lacks a real climax. Spirited Away had one and Kiki, another coming-of-age story, had one. But not Ponyo.

By the way, Ponyo and Sosuke were positively charming. I loved them. I have no problems saying that people that were criticizing the inclusion of Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas should be eating a healthy serving of crow right about now. This dub was easily on par with any of the other Ghibli movies.

Bottom line: A for presentation and heart, C for story. But that averages out to a B. So it's well worth seeing, just don't stop here if this is only your first or second Studio Ghibli movie.
 
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