Thursday 18 February 2010

PONYO



Ponyo is the latest Hayao Miyazaki film from Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki writing, directing and animating which is always good news). The plot, simply put, is a little magical fish attempting to escape her father, become human and hang out, on land, with a young boy named Sosuke.

Visually, Ponyo is right up there with Miyazaki's most recent efforts (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle), but Ponyo has it's own aesthetic identity, with brighter colours and some beautifully simplistic characters, that really sets it apart. Despite some of the simplicity there are some incredibly detailed underwater scenes that kick the shit out of any western animation you're ever likely to see.

It's incredibly imaginative and almost every shot is perfect and gorgeous in every way. The characters are sweet and funny, there are many parts where you will chuckle and laugh quite a bit. It has a much lighter tone than Spirited Away (the film that all Miyazaki films are now compared to as it is generally regarded as the best), but don't think that this makes it "Miyazaki light" or "Diet Ghibli" or whatever the narrowminded critics are calling it. What makes this film officially my favourite Studio Ghibli picture is that it caters to no one yet should satisfy everyone and is just so perfect.

But if you don't like simple storytelling, loveable characters, good humour, amazing visuals, epic and detailed underwater sequences, fish, waves that can be tickled, mad ocean wizards possibly voiced by Liam Neeson, surreal and magical movie-making and my favourite film of 2010 so far and one of my top ten films ever then... you know... fuck you.


1 comment:

  1. I am a fan of Miyazaki too! My favorite ever are Princess Mononoke and Totoro ♥

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