Ponyo Should be Yawn-Yo

And then comes Ponyo.  My wife and seven year old daughter were charmed. I expected something, well, something more. I cannot tell you what  is missing from Ponyo, but you’ll feel it, too.

The story is a very straight line, from opening credits to closing, about a magical fish that falls into fascination with a five year old human boy. The fish is one of a gazillion offspring, the result of a hard to imagine union between a wizard and a goddess.  The little fishy, Ponyo, turns herself into a human child so that she can remain with the boy, Sosuke,  and live on land. Doing so upsets the balance of nature and causes the moon to come perilously close to the earth.  To restore the balance, the little boy must show true love.

Okay, so it’s a pretty simple story. It’s kind of like The Little Mermaid Meets Godzilla. There are a couple of moments that had my little girl squirming in her seat out of anxiety. There were a couple of moments where the wizard had to stop and explains the plotline to make sure we didn’t get lost. And there are several laugh out loud funny spots.  My wife and I both had trouble with the five year old boy being asked to show true love, and had to work hard to remind ourselves that Miyazaki’s concept for the relationship between Ponyo and Sosuke is platonic love. I say that because some of the wording gets a little sticky, although it quite flew over my seven year old’s head.

The artwork is at once simple and terribly complex. Sosuke’s house is a study in retro so convincing you’d think you were watching The Party or Mod Squad.  There are many points in the film wherein the art is so stylized as to go beyond credulity, which I found distracting.  Some scenes, such as the boat ride over the submerged roads, are exquisitely photo-realistic.  Parts of it reminded me of the old Max Fleischer cartoons.  But, you cannot leave the theater without having seen something beautiful.

The acting is equally strong. Liam Neeson’s performance as the wizard is both hilarious and convincing.  Cate Blanchett’s goddess was certainly goddess-like, although lacking in excitement. Tina Fey, playing the little boy Sosuke’s mother, was a delight.

I think Joe Hisaishi is a brilliant man. His work is at once powerful and subtle.  He tends to borrow phrases from western music, however, sometimes to the detriment of the film. In this case you will be certain to hear Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries thrumming over the surging waves. Except that it’s not quite Wagner…it’s so close you’ll be tempted to hum it, and you’ll be disappointed because it deviates at crucial moments.  It’s not a bad score by any means, and it serves well in highlighting and supporting the film’s moods. It’s just that I found myself thinking “isn’t this Wagner?” when I should have been following the story.

Is it suitable for little kids? Good heavens yes!  The younger the better, although preschoolers may find it too long.  There are some scary moments, but they are more than outweighed by cute, cheerful scenes.

Me? I’ll take a pass on this one. The story is very straight-line, but a trifle too simple for my taste. While the film is beautiful and shows an artist’s loving hand, the stylization frequently took me out of the story. The acting is solid, but the writing is stodgy and vaguely confusing is some places.  I liked the simplicity of Kiki’s Delivery Service, which had the same gentle nature as this film, but found the artwork and the structure much more satisfying.