PONYO (2010) Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki, hailed as the Japanese Walt Disney Returns with his first directed film since 2006's Howl's Moving Castle, This time he channels the ocean for a story of Love and evolution. The film in Question is Ponyo (On A Cliff ).

Ponyo tells the story of a young boy who lives in a house on a cliff by the sea. One morning he finds a small goldfish stuck in a jar, he tries to pull the creature out but after many attempts fails, he then decides to smash the jar open with a rock, cutting him self in the process. He gets the little fish out and holds it in his hands. A little drop of blood on his finger, The little fish licks it off. He decides to call the fish Ponyo. Ponyo is no ordinary fish, she is the daughter of Fujimoto the king of the sea, who is trying to protect her from humans, who constantly destroy his world by dumping rubbish into the ocean. Ponyo is found by her father and taken back to her home under the sea which upsets Sosuke, the young boy. Ponyo does not want to stay but to return to Sosuke. When Ponyo licked the blood off of his finger, his DNA mixed with hers and through the power of magic is able to sprout arms and legs., thus allowing her to escape, but this has grave consequences as it causes an imbalance to the world. This causes the tides to rise as the moon draws closer. Ponyo now in human form finds Sosuke and during a storm created by the little fish girl, Sosuke's mother gets stranded on the other side of the village, the two new friends embark on a journey of a life time to safe the earth and his mother and to help Ponyo fulfil her dream of becoming a human for good.

The film is beautifully animated buy the team at Studio Ghibli and the story by Miyazaki is heart warming as it encompasses many themes seen in his previous films, the main one being family, the only problem with the story is that it may become a little confusing for very small children but at a certain age, the beautiful animation is what the kids will be looking at. Pony as fish is cute and when she transforms into human form, begins to experience things for the first time like eating food and dancing around, this is well written by Miyazaki who is in his 70^th decade. Like previous Ghibli films, Ponyo is aimed at children, the main characters are kids, the character of Sosuke is apparently based on his own son.

The animation it's self is fantastic, one scene in particular shows the expertise of the director, the seen where the storm is in full swing and we're following Sosuke and his mother as they drive through the storm heading home as huge fish in the form of waves follow them, this is very cool but the best part is the fact that Ponyo is chasing after them while running on top of the waves with a huge smile across her face. This is brilliantly done and uses Miyazaki's famous whoosh lines to show speed. Studio Ghibli constantly deliver on their films which is something Disney animation studios haven't done since The Lion King. This is sad because they don't get the promotion and exposure they should and usually get their audiences through DVD and BLU-RAY.

I saw the English dub of the film as the voice cast seemed interesting, and it was a good choice because the talent behind the characters was great, special mention to Tina Fey who voices the mother, and even though she's not billed as high as Cate Blanchett, she has more screen time. Blanchett appears as Gran Mamare, the mother of the sea and seems to be putting on an odd accent. She is barely in the film. Liam Neeson is great as Fujimoto and has that very recognisable voice. There's Matt Damon as Sosuke's father and the legend that is Betty White as one of the old women.

Sosuke is voiced by Frankie Jonas, the youngest of the Jonas Brothers and he does a pretty good job for such a young child (10 years old) but it's Miley Cyrus's younger sister Noah Cyrus who stands out as Ponyo, She sounds as though she's enjoying the entire experience. The entire English casting was overseen by Pixar supremo John Lassetter and the was translated into english my Melissa Matheson who wrote E.T.

THE DVD

SPECIAL FEATURES

The DVD I viewed was a rental version which is the same as the single disc sell-thru DVD. The Extra's on the disc were minimal, there were some deleted scenes and a multi-angle storyboard feature. I know it's only a DVD rental but I hate it when companies drop all the extra's when I rent a DVD I want to know how it's made. This is a bit of a let down on the Single disc and at an RRP of 17.99 is a bit too steep. The 2 Disc is and the Blu-Ray are the ones to go for as they contain a shed of extra's. Below are the special features....

The Five Genuises Who Created Ponyo – interviews with Katsuya Kondo (Supervising Animator), Noboru Yoshida (Art Director), Michiyo Yasuda (Colour Design), Shuji Inoue (Recording & Sound Mixing) and Joe Hisaishi (Music) (48:52)
Japanese trailers and TV spots
- Trailer 1
- Trailer 2
- TV Spot
- Tie-in-Promotion with Lawson
- Tin-in Promotion with Ponyo Exhibition
- Tie-in Promotion with Layout Design Exhibition
Intro by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (3:19)
A Conversation with Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter (3:30)
Behind the Microphone: the Voices of Ponyo (6:01)
Creating Ponyo (3:55)
Ponyo and Fujimoto(2:56)
The Nursery (1:57)
Scoring Miyazaki (7:17)
The Producer’s Perspective: Telling the Story (2:25)
The Locations in Ponyo (9:39)
Hayao Miyazaki interview (14.00)
Toshio Suzuki interview (29:00)
Dubbing Session and interview with Japanese cast 25:00)
Music Video of the theme song (3:30)

The Picture

The DVD and the Blu-Ray are both presented in 1.18:1 widescreen and the the Blu is 1080p. On DVD the picture is beautiful and if you don't have a Blu-ray player, but you DVD player can up scale to 1080i, I highly recommend using that. The colours are bright and look incredible.

The Blu is coded for region B only...

FINAL VERDICT

A brilliant film for all the family and a great looking Blu-ray and special edition DVD package. Just stay away from the single disc if your after the extra's.

Also Kudos to Optimum UK for another fantastic UK DVD Ghibli release...

P.S If you enjoy Ponyo I highly recommend the following Studio Ghibli films....