"Ponyo" Talkback (Spoilers)

"Probably the most saccharine horror film I've ever seen."

Ouch! Funny, since most of the negativity is based on the film being too tied down to tropes.
 
The dubtitles were actually from an earlier dub Streamline did (similar to TOTORO and LAPUTA), and are not that much different from the original Japanese, from what I understand.

It'll be fine with me, though, if Disney decides to keep their current existing dubs; having heard a bit more of a sample of the older dub of Laputa and being disappointed with what I heard, I can safely say now that Disney's version is better, if not flawless. The voices in the newer dub have a certain liveliness and believeability that the older one simply doesn't have (the dialogue is less stilted too).
 
I saw it yesterday, thought it was fantastic. Easily made my top 3 Summer movie of 2009. The art was beautiful to look at, I enjoyed the story, the character were hilarious, my favorite being Fujimoto, and there were some parts that made me feel emotional.
 
This is why we should just have people who are fans of anime review a film such as this one because not everyone will appreciate the beauty and work behind it. Plus even with the superstar cast, Ponyo can't go wrong provided that Disney, for now on, realizes that sometimes even the best Miyazaki films might just have to go straight to DVD since I'm already seeing this film getting slaughted by the competition from last week and the other three mediocre films we had yesterday.
 
One of the things that annoys me about Hollywood's marketing machine is their tendency to praise the celebrity voice actors they get for their animated movies more than the animated movies themselves.

Disney's treatment of Hayao Miyazaki's movies is sadly no exception. I tend to skip the part of the description on the back cover where they list the stars whose voices the English dub features...the credits don't even list the original Japanese voice actors. Miramax's release of Princess Mononoke is perhaps the worst of them all--they have their celebrity voices' names displayed at the top of the front cover.

It's like they're saying, "you must watch this movie because look who we got to voice the characters! Jim Carrey! Will Ferrell! You just KNOW you're going to love it!"

And what if the movie turns out to be crap? You feel that you were tricked into watching a bad movie because what's-his-name voiced the lead character.

I don't care if they got one of the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana's little sister to dub this movie--they're not in my demographic, anyway--I just want to see a good animated movie.

New release of Kiki, huh? I'll have to watch that one again.
 
Well, look on the bright side: this really IS a pretty good movie, the lame-o teeniebopper pseudolebrities actually do a pretty decent job in the dub, and if their presence gets some kiRAB who otherwise might have given it a pass to check it out, then I guess they earned their checks.
 
I don't know if it's mentioned before here, but if I have anything to complain about the dub, it's this scene.

When the ship that Sosuke's dad is on, sees a bunch of ships all piled on top of each other, that's supposed to be a graveyard of lost ships at sea. They don't mention that in the dub, I only caught that in the subtitles I watched elswhere.
So when the ship's engine stopped, they were getting sent to their doom until Gramamare comes and saves them, by restarting the engine.
I just felt that since that element should've been kept in, 'tis all.
 
^I think some people just don't get fantasy. Their minRAB are wired in such a way that it's like they're looking at a Jackson Pollock "drip" painting.
 
I saw Ponyo last Sunday. I liked it pretty much. I thought the ending was rushed and unsatisfying, but otherwise I couldn't really find any flaws.

I was kind of hoping Ponyo would be released on DVD alongside Only Yesterday and I Can Hear the Ocean. I hope those get released eventually.
 
Ocean Waves isn't part of the Ghibli-Disney deal, because it was a televised film I believe.

Anyway, I caught the dub in the theatre today. I like it a lot. While I agree with Leviathan that the third act was a bit weaker than the rest, it's in line with Miyazaki's M.O. His plots aren't so much there to drive the movie but to suggest a world to explore.

What makes Ponyo work is in the details. You can go on about the flash and pyrotechnics, but what Miyazaki's the best at doing is delineating child psychology. He understanRAB that kiRAB are humans stripped down to the essentials. While we adults have pretensions of being more "sophisticated" than kiRAB and other animals, what Miyazaki "gets" about kiRAB is that they know what are the basic human neeRAB--eating, sleeping, playing. And pooping too, but that's not as cinematically pleasing. Those little scenes of Ponyo marveling at the wonders of "ham" and "fire" and "lightbulbs" are things that other children's films pass by in order to get to the next plot point.

Sosuke is an interesting character. I've heard fans call him bland but I disagree. I think he's the most nuanced boy character Miyazaki has done up to date. Pazu and Ashitaka were generic boy heroes and generic "anime" heroes, respectively. Sosuke is a nice portrayal of a character who's sensitive to the people and world around him but isn't a complete wuss or indecisive putz either. He's the type of guy you can see getting a lot of girls when he gets older because of his sensitivity and wholeheartedness.

I think given time Ponyo will be considered more highly among Miyazaki's post-Porco output.
 
True. I would like to see it doing better on a per-theatre basis though, but I guess anime, even Miyazaki anime, will always be more of an "indie" scene when it comes to box office and mainstream popularity.

I'm planning to catch this on the big screen before they start reducing the screens after the first 2 weeks.
 
Hrm. Well, it figures it'd be shown there. I guess that explains why I haven't seen any other aRAB - I don't watch any of those networks (well, Adult Swim doesn't really count against CN).


For a five-year-old boy, he sure is bright. He's very solidly grounded. He knows what to do in a tense situation - getting a boat ready, taking care of Ponyo, etc. I liked how confident he gets when he puts on his father's cap. But at the same time, he's still a five-year-old boy, especially in that scene where he starts to cry when he and Ponyo find Lisa's abandoned car, or when he thought Ponyo was dying when she reverted back to her goldfish state. I liked that balance of realism.


He won't need to. He's got Ponyo, remeraber? (It'd be pretty sad if he dumped Ponyo when he got older... )
 
Just got back from seeing this. For my full review, click here.

The short version: Loved the music and visuals, the dub was okay, hated the ending song.
 
So I finally saw the much hyped Studio Ghibli movie and...

Meh. Could've been better, it's good, but compared to other Miyazaki movies. The animation is great bu the overall pacing of the film was lousy. I liked Up better than this.

Grade: B
 
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