"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

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rebeltom

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I'll be seeing it in a few hours, and I'd just like to say I hope that that poster will be the DVD cover. It has a gorgeous simplicity to it.
 
Huh. I thought it was the perfect length. Not too short (I think it was 100 minutes), yet not overstaying its welcome either. At no point did I feel bored watching the film, or that I wanted it to end. I wouldn't have changed a thing.
 
My minor quibble is no doubt due to my blockbluster-blasted sensibilities ; I'm so used to constant visual stimulation from other animated films that Ponyo's moderate pace did get to me a little. But I blame my sensibilities, not the film.
 
Welcome To A World Where Anything Is Possible.



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Release Date: August 14, 2009
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Studio Ghibli
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noah Cyrus, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White

Plot Summary: The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa (Tina Fey). One fateful day, he finRAB a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo (Noah Cyrus). But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard (Liam Neeson) and a sea goddess (Cate Blanchett?), Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous irabalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father senRAB the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children erabark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.

View the official movie site here.

COMMENTS?

Unfortunately, with my grandma over (she's not really into anime and would rather see Julie & Julia, BanRABlam, and The Time Traveler's Wife) work for the next few days, and scheduled hangouts (involving G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and District 9, lol), I'll have to wait a bit on it.
 
I went to see it, and it was so adorable.
I enjoyed it a lot, the pacing, the characters, the animation, everything.
The 'ham' thing was also funny, and really cute.

I wish I could have gone at a different time than I did though,
this one girl right behind me kept giggling and laughing really loudly at almost every line,
which was more than a little distracting.

There's always the DVD release!
 
I merged the posts from the other thread into this one before deleting it, but they ended up before the first post in this thread since they were posted first. Sorry for the confusion

As for the thread topic, I'd like to see this before classes begin in a little over a week, but I'm not sure I'll have time to drive half an hour away with my work/move-in schedule. We shall see.
 
I'm really hoping this movie will still be in theaters in two weeks, when i actually have extra spending money for it. I mean I will see it eventually but i would just love to see it in theaters.
 
But Earthsea was made by an inexperienced director and had a horrible production cycle. Ponyo is actually an apology of sorts to Goro for how much Hayao mistreated him both as a kid and during the production of Earthsea.

Ponyo is amazing, by the way.
 
I saw it today with my sister and nieces. My sister slept through half of the movie, because she said it "looked stupid". Then she woke up, saw the rest, and said it was "weird as hell". My nieces liked it though, infact afterwarRAB they both demanded ham sandwiches.

The theater wasn't filled at all. There were only three other families there, some adults (most likely anime geeks), and a group of anime geeks. The group was annoying. They cheered and went nuts when the Studio Ghibli logo came on, and when Hayao Miyazaki's name came up. And they insanely laughed AT EVERYTHING. Even scenes that weren't really funny. They literally went into seizures everytime Ponyo repeated something Sousuke said. It was insane, and I wanted to tell them to shut the hell up.

I liked it, I thought it was very cute. I really liked Lisa, and the women at the senior center. Nice cast too, I was surprised to hear Lily Tomlin. The surrealism in the second half of the movie was cool. Kinda reminded me of Cat Soup.

I did have some issues with the movie. Namely a few random elements in the story that are tossed aside.

1. Ponyo's father mentions he used to be human. And we never hear anymore about it. How did he end up the way he is?

2. What was the deal with the one grumpy old woman? Was the scene where Sousuke trusts her over Fujimoto suppose to mean something?

3. The "she'll turn to seafoam" bit seemed random. I know it's from the original Little Mermaid story, but they just threw it in at the last minute. Miyazaki could've done a better job with that.

Also, I thought the ending was too abrupt. Almost had a Sopranos-feel to it.
 
I agree with the ending abruptly thing. It was an incredbily cute one though. Like, I let out a big ol' "Awwww" at it.

I half-expected Sosuke to say, "You know, Lisa, I've been meaning to say this for a while but your driving sucks!"
 
Well, came back from the theaters. I don't think it Miyazaki's best effort, but after all the recent "adventure-laden" films he's recently done, it was nice to see his more slower paced, slice of life-ish films. It's not as solid as My Neigrabroador Totoro and seemingly feels incoherent at times, but it's a generally solid piece of work through and through.

If anything, it again defines why Miyazaki is a mastery of his art form. No computers, hand drawn, and incredibly beautiful. The eye candy and detailed shots of the ocean waves and numerous aquatic life is nothing short of breathtaking.
 
The dub was fantastic! Did you spot the reference to another English version of a Miyazaki movie?


Not quite as good as Totoro, but still brilliant.
 
"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

I've never seen Tales of Earthsea, but by far my only Miyazaki/Ghibli disappointment has been Nausica
 
I had to choose between a movie about xeno tolerance or lack thereof (Which was District 9) and what looked like a different take on Little Mermaid (Which was Ponyo... maybe comparing that to this movie wasn't a good idea). I chose the latter since they won't show Ponyo where I'm going.

It was a simple, cute, funny movie. And the animation and scenery was great. That's all I need to say.

Did I mention it was funny?
The small audience I was with all laughed when Sosuke's mom told her husband to bug off during a light signal conversation.
 
Ugh, I had the same problem. This one guy who sat two seats away from me laughed loudly at pretty much every instance of quirky animation in the film. He'd laugh at pieces of dialogue that weren't funny at all, too. For instance, when Sosuke and his mom left the senior center during the storm and that one grouchy grandma says, "Careful Sosuke, the wind might blow you away" he just went ballistic.

Though I guess I should be thankful that it was only one guy and not an entire group.
 
With the weekend estimate at $3.5 million that's an average of about $3782 per theater which, in terms of average per theater, would put it in 5th place

But for it to be in less than 1000 theaters and make 3.5 million and make the top 10 is pretty dang good.

Friday estimate: $1,180,000
Saturday: $1,318,000
Sunday: $1,008,000

*for comparison's sake, the domestic total for Spirited Away for $10 million and change.
 
"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

Xenophobic mockumentary? What are you talking about? I don't think any of this week's films are like that... are you referring to Br
 
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