Hayao Miyazaki's Animated Fable Ponyo: Movie Review

"Ponyo" is the latest effort by Hayao Miyazaki, the master of animation who has given us masterworks like "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away". It's hard to say whether or not such a comparatively obscure film will translate to an American audience - the names Jonas and Cyrus will certainly bring in some youngsters, but why see a hand-drawn film when you can see special agent guinea pigs in 3D? However, although a spoiled modern audience may consider this animation technique primitive, the magical scope of this picture greatly surpasses any animated feature this decade not branded Miyazaki or Pixar. Once you fully give yourself to the film (which doesn't take long, I might add), it's inviting world is pure cinematic bliss.

The film begins by introducing us to Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), a creature simply called a "goldfish" despite having the face of a human. After separating herself from her father, a wizard named Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), Ponyo finds herself stuck in debris left on the bottom of the ocean. She is eventually rescued by a young boy, Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), who was playing nearby. When Ponyo licks a drop of blood off of Sosuke's hand, it gives her the power to turn into a girl.

Ponyo's transformation upsets the natural order, and soon the moon begins drifting down to Earth. The further it descends, the higher it raises the ocean - soon, prehistoric fish are awakened and now swim through the streets. When Lisa (Tina Fey), Sosuke's mother, goes missing in an attempt to aid the elderly at the senior center, Ponyo and Sosuke begin a journey by boat to reunite Sosuke and his mother.

"Princess Mononoke" is the Miyazaki film I was first exposed to, and therefore "Ponyo" wasn't quite what I expected. While it does have an environmental message, it is nowhere near as pronounced as Miyazaki's previous works. It's also less sophisticated, which is not a major detriment to the film. Although the plot is scaled down into a fairly standard "Little Mermaid" kind of fable, the grand scale of imagination is more than enough to suck in an intelligent audience. And, lets be honest - with artwork this beautiful, I would not protest if the plot never moved on from the cooking of ramen noodles.

Japanimation purists will frown that "Ponyo" is not available in a subtitled format in multiplexes, but the dubbing here is quite good. While you may be tempted to purchase a Region 2 DVD from Japan to watch the film with English subtitles, you'd be doing yourself a great misfortune to not see such magnificent artwork on the big screen. It's a transcendent experience, and one that is becoming extinct due to the dominance of computer animation.

I wanted to hug every inch of this movie. It's as charming, cute, and magical as anything i've seen in a long time. It may not be as profoundly allegorical as "Princess Mononoke", but this one is just as capable of whisking you away into a completely new world.