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 After
a barrage of animation over the last few years, ranging from the sublime
(Up, Kung Fu Panda, Horton Hears a Who!) to the unfortunate (Fly
Me to the Moon, Happily N’Ever After, Shark Tale), the thing all
these recent films have in common is the fact that they are all the
products of computer animation. I have reported long and loud about the
intangible sensory disconnect between CGI animation and hand-drawn
cartoons. Nowhere was that difference made clearer to me than sitting
in a theatre watching the opening seconds of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest
film, Ponyo. The gentle scene that takes us over and down through blue
oceans into an undersea kingdom had the most unexpected effect of an
actual warmth and calmness that came over me, reminiscent of the
near-hypnotic state seizes a class of hyperactive kindergarteners the
moment an adult opens a book for storytime. Anime Prozac, who knew?
Often
regarded as the Japanese Walt Disney, Ponyo is a variation on Hans
Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, which was adapted by Disney
animators in 1989. Miyazaki’s Ponyo is also a princess of the seas who
wants more from her life. Breaking away from a cluster of similarly
tadpole-like siblings, Ponyo takes advantage of her father’s
preoccupation with his job of balancing the world’s oceans to make a
break for the surface. Unprepared for the rush and confusion of the
human world, little Ponyo has bitten off more than she can chew and is
buffeted about by the busy river traffic, ending up trapped inside a
glass bottle. The bottle wends its way into the hands of Sosuke, a
small boy playing on a beach outside his clifftop home. Sosuke frees
Ponyo and understands quickly that this is no ordinary goldfish. After
Ponyo licks a cut Sosuke suffers after breaking Ponyo’s glass prison,
the red-headed fishie and the little boy become fast friends, with
Sosuke carrying Ponyo in a bucket everywhere he goes. Unfortunately
there’s someone else who is quite attached to Ponyo; her father scours
the land and sea sending out powerful wave spirits to retrieve his lost
child and return her to their undersea world. Ponyo is nothing if not a
determined little herring and her resolve to see young Sosuke again
makes for some very interesting changes in the little princess, who
sprouts limbs in echo of her new friend. In her attempt to return to
Sosuke, Ponyo accidentally upsets various magical items in her dad’s
lab, causing his careful balancing act of the world’s tides to be
completely unmoored. The rising waters shift the oceans, causing
typhoons and all sorts of aquatic destruction that can only be put right
with a test of the two young children’s devotion to each other. If they
are truly meant to be then Ponyo will lose her magic, returning the
world to rights once again, if not, Ponyo will die.
Ponyo
is an odd little fish of a film; while bearing all the magic and charm
that one expects of all things Miyazaki, Ponyo seems a giant step
backwards for the director to his work circa the 1980’s. Indeed the art
and design of Ponyo hearkens back to Miyazaki’s earlier works, like his
first feature, 1979’s The Castle of Cagliostro, or Laputa: Castle in the
Sky. Even the look of Ponyo’s father, the sorcerer Fujimoto, is that of
a 1980’s new romantic-era rock star, with his long, flowing red locks,
gold earrings and puffy-shouldered striped blazer. I can’t help but
wonder if after the extremely intricately detailed and technically
evolved triumphs of Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), Spirited Away and
Howl’s Moving Castle, this look the bygone eras and styles wasn’t
intentional on Miyazaki’s part? Was he winding back to the clock to get
back to simpler storytelling, wowing the audience less with the stunning
eye candy of seamless marauding wolves, spiraling surreal onsen and
giant strolling steampunk castles, giving more due to the his characters
and script? Whatever the answer, it is the characters that charm as
does the story of love on different levels; the friendship between Ponyo
and Sosuke, the warmth of family when Lisa, Sosuke’s mother, accepts the
lost humanoid Ponyo into her home, as well as Fujimoto’s fears of
letting his beloved daughter go into the dangerous unknown. There is
Lisa’s own romantic love story tested by Sosuke’s father’s long absences
at sea and the strength and faith of both Ponyo’s and Sosuke’s mothers
to believe in the choices of their young offspring. As per usual with
Miyazaki, there are lessons about ecology and the pollution of the
seas. There is also Sosuke’s deep respect and inclusion of a group of
elderly ladies who live in the rest home where his mother works. That’s
a lot of story to fit in one movie and I believe that perhaps to
Miyazaki it may have been more important to get his points across than
to dazzle. Ponyo is long on charm but after films like Spirited Away,
it’s a bit of a blow to expectations to see the animation, which is
undeniably, intricately beautiful – the renderings of the undersea world
with its plethora of fish both modern and prehistoric, the night scenes
on the on seas surface and Fujimoto’s dim but determined ocean wave
spirits - but never reaches the amazement of the previous films. There
are odd moments when the drawing style abruptly changes, warping and
flattening and scenes inside Fujimoto’s submarine look as if they were
drawn by children, adding to the oddness of Ponyo and my thought that
Miyazaki’s focus was to keep the film lighter and more whimsical in a
way his last couple of features were not.
As for
the English dub of the film, the voice cast for the children is a Disney
bonanza with Frankie Jonas and Noah Cyrus, younger siblings of Disney’s
top cash cows, The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus, voicing Sosuke and
Ponyo. Jonas does a fine job as Sosuke and Cyrus doesn’t have much to
do as Ponyo except yell for ham and Sosuke every now and again and that
becomes a bit shrill at times. Lisa is well rendered by Tina Fey, who
captures the frustration of the young mother disappointed by her
husband’s absences and her strength when called on to believe utterly in
her young son. Cate Blanchette adds proper luminosity to Granmammare a
sea goddess, whose exalted position gives her the perspective on her
daughter’s life that her chosen mate, Fujimoto lacks. Liam Neeson is
lovingly paternal as Fujimoto, but Neeson’s gruff, deep voice doesn’t
match the character’s offbeat appearance and he seems miscast.
By no
means a failure, Ponyo seems more of a back-to-basics exercise for the
director’s storytelling skills and in his narrative Miyazaki is
wonderful. The movie’s focus on this independent little girl of the
seas and her resourceful, devoted friend Sosuke is a welcome one.
Miyazaki admirably balances the story to keep the attention equally for
both little girls and boys in the audience. The subtext of the bonds of
family and how they can change and evolve is worthwhile for any adult.
While Ponyo is nowhere the spectacle of animation that Princess Mononoke
or Spirited Away are, the beautiful hand-drawn storybook pastels of
Sosuke’s village and the mesmerising swirl of colour and action of
Ponyo’s world under the sea are a gentle delight. Ponyo may not be my
favourite Miyazaki, but that’s comparing brilliance to brilliance. Ponyo’s
charming story shouldn’t be missed.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
August
14th, 2009
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