Ponyo

[Mauve Mage]

Come on guys, I know it's a kiddie movie, but I'm still disappointed in the lack of love for Miyazaki here!

So has ANYONE else seen Ponyo? I thought the animation, as always, was fantastic. Studio Ghibli's animation team always manages to capture human motion so beautifully. Little everyday things, like the way a person absentmindedly takes off their shoes, or struggles to get a bag of groceries through a doorway. Their ability to capture that has always impressed me. I also loved more fantastic elements, like the giant fish who changed back and forth into water, and the sentient waves. And the backgrounds were gorgeous. They looked like watercolor and colored pencil.

As far as the plot goes, I thought it was relatively well done. A few of the plot points didn't really make a lot of sense, in retrospect, but the overall movie was good enough to encourage you to gloss over those blurry moments. Or blame it all on fishy magic and leave it at that.

My only real complaint: The horrible, horrible music at the end. I have a feeling that it was Disney's doing. It didn't fit the mood of the movie, it sounded like it was written for a tv show for three year olds, and to top it all off, they instantly followed it with a techno remix of it. A freaking techno remix. Stop it, Disney. Just... stop it.

[synkr0nized]

Despite finally having a decent theatre release (damn you, Disney), Ghibli films still don't seem to make it in my current area.

[PCD]

I'm not going to deny that Ghibli does some amazing artwork in their films. Motion of people, magic, and environment have always been astounding, and their respect for hand-drawn animation really sinks in the beauty of it all.

Unfortunately, though, this movie just didn't do it for me. I think my biggest problem was that Sosuke was just a very dull character, a plot-driven little boy who just did what he was told. Ponyo was an adorable character of her own, but had relatively few lines.

And I know Miyazaki films always have that sort of unexplained magic-world thing going on, but in other movies it felt like enough was going on so that you could pretty much understand how everything worked just by seeing it in motion. In this movie, I didn't get that feeling: Fujimoto's elixirs, general magic, his vendetta against the human race that immediately dissolved. Ponyo's mother, or the random the world is thrown out of whack for some reason oh no here comes the moon

It's my personal opinion that this movie just didn't work. Perhaps it's a result of Miyazaki's amazing previous work raising my expectations.

[Regulus Tera]

:'( (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?t=35642)

Absolutely loved the movie. It kinda fizzled without a real climax of sorts, but it was so adorable. I also loved how it made you look through the eyes of the children, especifically Sosuke.

Lisa robbed the show, though.

[phil_]

I just watched a subtitled version of dubious origin (the chick getting up in the middle and blocking the screen didn't help), but I enjoyed what I saw. As for Fujimoto's vendetta against mankind disappearing, I don't think he anticipated Ponyo using so much water magic that it would knock satellites out of orbit and bring the moon closer. When the world's going to be destroyed and when it also concerns your daughter's happiness, a lot of things can slide, including destroying the human race. At least, in an idealistic world like Miyazaki works in with his movies.

As for Sosuke doing what the plot demanded, all he did was catch a mermaid at random, lose it, ride in a car with his crazy mom through a storm, get his mermaid back, then go looking for his mom. It's all pretty reasonable, considering his circumstances and his being 5.

I could, if I wanted, bemoan the pointlessness of the whole deal, but here's how I see it. It's like Poe, who made unabashedly pointless stories with the sole purpose of scaring the reader. This is the same, only it's supposed to be cute instead of scary. And it is cute, and that's what matters, at least from that angle.

But, again, I didn't see Disney's rendition, so I can't get angry with you guys about whatever they messed up.

[Death by Stabbing]

I'm going to see it hopefully this week some time...I wanted to see it over the weekend but no friends were around so...yeah I expect to enjoy it