Hayao Miyazaki's heartfelt, wonderfully imaginative "Ponyo" is aimed squarely at 5-year-olds and for those adults who are still in touch with their inner 5-year-old. And if you happen to be an adult who is in touch with his/her inner 5-year-old AND possesses the film-nerd credibility to accurately draw parallels between this film and everything from the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" to "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams," this is going to be one of your favorite films of the year.
The story is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's classic "The Little Mermaid" in that it tells the story of a goldfish princess (voiced by Noah Lindsey Cyrus) who longs to venture from her father's undersea domain to experience the world of the humans. When she is rescued by a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), she is instantly smitten and longs to be human. But Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), her wizard father, will have none of that talk. He summons the waves to go retrieve Ponyo so that he can keep her under lock and key (er, well, bubble).
But Ponyo has come to discover she has magical powers of her own and soon she is swimming back to the mainland to be reunited with Sosuke. This decision causes a dangerous imbalance in nature, resulting in a typhoon that threatens to engulf the entire island where Sosuke and his family live. Ultimately, the innocent love of Sosuke and Ponyo is put the test, with the future of the human world and the fantasy world at stake.
Miyazaki has created a brilliant world of color, sound, movement and imagination. At times, his film is like watching a great watercolor painting come to life. This is not the slick, increasingly photo-realistic digital animation we have come to expect from the folks at Pixar, Dreamworks and other outlets. No 3-D glasses will be passed out at your local cineplex. This is art, plain and simple. Miyazaki's visuals are at once simple, yet dream-like. And some of the images linger in the mind long after you leave the theater, like car headlights smothered in a dense forest or an island completely submerged in ocean water where various aquatic life forms glide down coastal highways previously navigated by cars and trucks.
The story might have been better served by making the two lead child characters just a little older. Ultimately, the fate of our natural environment comes down to a test of how deeply Sosuke loves Ponyo. It's a child-like love, yes. But it's a touch hard for grown-ups to get swept up in such a love story when it involves pre-schoolers.
Maybe it's a cultural thing. "Ponyo" was a major hit in Japan before Disney acquired it and re-tooled it for American audiences. The Powers That Be at the Mouse House recast the various voices with such talents as Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon. Amazingly, each of the recast voices has managed to capture the essence of these characters, especially Neeson as the angry (but not evil) Fujimoto and Fey as the harried mom.
You would think that a film in which a Jonas brother and another Billy Ray Cyrus spawn are featured so prominently would feel more like a cash grab. But there are no clunky, pop-culture references anywhere in the film. And Jonas, in particular, has an almost "Peanuts"-like vocal delivery. His Sosuke sounds very much like Linus from those classic "Charlie Brown" holiday specials.
It's easy to see why children on both sides of the world are embracing this story. It's a simple tale that has surprising emotional depth. Some family films try and teach your kids how to think. This is the rare one that looks to teach them (and us) how to feel. It rates as an 8 out of 10. (T. Durgin)
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