“Ponyo” is Hayao Miyazaki’s eighth animated feature film. Originally released in 2008, the movie details the adventures of the titular character Ponyo, a water deity, and her serendipitous encounter with a Japanese boy and his mother.
This movie is, unsurprisingly, absolutely adorable. “Ponyo” is definitely Studio Ghibli’s most playful film since 1993’s My Neighbor Totoro, though perhaps just due to its demographic. There’s not much under the surface here besides a sweet adventure flick and a few metaphors.
It goes without saying that the art in this movie is unparalleled. The artists at Studio Ghibli are masters of animation, a sentiment proven almost 20 years ago by Miyazaki’s seventh film “Princess Mononoke,” which used CGI in tandem with hand drawn frames.
However, there isn’t anything like that in “Ponyo.” The tone of the film is not suited for it.
Instead, the audience is given gorgeous hand drawn stills that feel like a children’s book come to life. Animation is often overlaid on top of the still shots but the environment is never dissociated with the animation.
In fact, during most of the film’s underwater scenes, the frame rate becomes notably slower in an attempt to accurately portray the heavy movement between the waves.
It’s such a simple and eloquent way to detail the ocean scenes — I couldn’t get enough of it.
The world built for “Ponyo” is bright, beautiful and brilliant. The setting of the film switches between the ocean and the nearby harbor town. As the story grows, fantasy and reality start blending together until there is no difference between them.
It’s a delight to see the normal characters nonchalantly accepting magic as part of their normal everyday lives, meant to show how everyone’s lives are already magical to begin with.
It’s a happy film. All the interactions between the characters are polite and the story doesn’t introduce plot elements that hinder a character’s spirit past a certain extent. Even when the audience has no idea what’s going on, Miyazaki’s alluring style has a way of mesmerizing one’s attention.
Specifically, the first scene of the movie is a cacophonous underwater symphony detailing the coexistence of magic and nature. It sets the groundwork for the upcoming events, but honestly doesn’t look that good compared to the rest of the film.
I was surprised to hear Tina Fey, Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett voice the main and secondary characters. Especially considering how loose all characters are with their surroundings, it adds familiarity to a world I’ve never seen before. The child voice actors for “Ponyo” and Sosuke were OK, if not a little annoying at times, but the audience can’t ask for much more considering the nature of the film.
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The soundtrack for “Ponyo” is built upon various classical suites reminiscent of the late Maurice Ravel and his sweeping orchestral movements. Elements of opera are also used over wide shots of the open ocean, paired with visuals of bustling sea creatures large and small.
The music is mature, and naturally reflects the childlike wonder that is abundant throughout the film. It would have been easy to just go with toy box music, so it was a good decision on Studio Ghibli’s part to keep things sonically sophisticated.
“Ponyo” is gorgeous and colorful and painfully cute. Personally, the film wasn’t my cup of tea, but I can’t deny how fantastic it was.
The art alone is enough to carry the 90-minute run time, not to mention the dynamic music and immersive, sentient world. Check out “Ponyo” playing at the SUB theater from Thursday to Sunday.
Audrin Baghaie is a culture reporter and movie reviewer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com.
