Ponyo
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Rated: G
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noah Cyrus, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas
Director: Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
WorkNameSort: Ponyo
Our Rating: 4.00
Acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki has given us his own take on Alice in Wonderland with the Oscar-winning Spirited Away and a long-winded riff on The Wizard of Oz with Howl’s Moving Castle. Now, with Ponyo, his latest work with Studio Ghibli, comes his unique spin on The Little Mermaid ‘ a spin that evokes Cocoon and an alternate ending from The Abyss along the way. It’s a story as idealistic and imaginative as any that Miyazaki and company have brought to life, with the kind of vivid hand-drawn care that is harder and harder to come by with each passing ‘toon.
With Mom (voiced by Tina Fey) out caring for the elderly and Dad (Matt Damon) often at sea, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that little Sosuke (Frankie Jonas, saddled with the blandest dubbing of the ensemble) plays down by the seashore, with or without seashells. Naturally, what he thinks at first is a little goldfish caught in a jar happens to be a miniature magical mermaid of sorts (Noah Cyrus ‘ Miley’s little sister), and his ostensible capture of this newfound friend throws the surrounding seas out of balance, bringing on a typhoon almost as powerful as their crush on one another.
It’s not powerful enough to claim any lives, mind you ‘ the typhoon, I mean, though the budding romance doesn’t kill anybody, either. It’s moderately cute to see Sosuke go through the familiar paces of harboring a secret pet, but once Ponyo returns of her own accord and begins to ingratiate herself with the land-dwellers, the film does likewise. (A scene where the former fish gets her fill of ham is a simple pleasure in itself.)
Miyazaki’s return to the nature-as-upset-entity motif has less to do with encroaching civilization this time (Princess Mononoke) and more to do with the growing dysfunction of the modern family. Sosuke’s parents are barely home, let alone together; Ponyo’s parents are Liam Neeson’s scheming wizard and Cate Blanchett’s ocean goddess (and we all know how that is).
Ponyo is such an effortless and well-meaning delight from top to bottom that pursuing such a thesis seems disingenuous at best (though it’s all still there if you want it to be); the dubbed version, with American actors voicing the characters makes its point gently. Sandwiched between the pixel-spewing likes of G-Force, Aliens in the Attic and Shorts, it stands out as an altogether wholesome and fully functioning family entertainment, subtle in its pro-environment message and thoroughly devoid of cynicism, innuendo and pop-culture references. But when the subtitled DVD release a few months from now reveals a scathing indictment on the collapse of the nuclear family unit, just remember who told you so.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2009.