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Ponyo Review
The best movie out this past week is one that is getting very little attention. A magical fantasy from Japan, Ponyo is simply touching, although it resembles The Little Mermaid.
When your six year old nephew tells you that he wants to see the new movie with Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas, the one thing you don’t think you are going to be watching is a Japanese fairy tale about a fish who wants to become human because she has fallen in love with a boy, but that is exactly what I had offered to me this weekend and I couldn’t have been more delighted.
While the surface similarities to The Little Mermaid were numerous, the story was very different.
Some of the similarities? Both fish girls want to be human, both fish girls have red hair, both have a ton of sisters, both have fathers that rule the ocean and seem mean at first but are really just loving fathers, neither has a mother figure at first, though Ponyo does at the end of her film, both fathers are mad at Humans because they pollute the ocean and lastly, both heavily involve magic.
In Ponyo, we are treated to a story of magic and wonder. There is no real bad guy, no evil witch who tricks Ponyo, but rather the story revolves around her ambition and energy throwing the world off its balance. It is remarkably charming. The visuals are average quality but pretty inventive at times and the story will make you laugh and smile and sit there feeling good. Too few movies are so heart warming.
