As Studio Ghibli neared completion on its ’97 eco-parable Princess Mononoke, producer Toshio Suzuki turned to Japanimation hero Hayao Miyazaki and suggested they make that film their last hurrah. After all, Miyazaki was nearing 60, Suzuki recalls on Ponyo’s extras. It takes stamina to work on 100,000 drawings and maintain due levels of magic and wonder – words often attached to Ghibli’s output.
Which makes Miyazaki’s splash with Ponyo all the more heart-boosting. Now approaching 70 and still a frontline soldier for 2D animation, Miyazaki has made one of his most youthful films in years, swapping Howl’s Moving Castle’s stresses for the sprightlier energies of My Neighbour Totoro. Cel count? Deep breath: 170,000-ish.
The fresh artistry and intuitive conviction of its nipper’s-eye view render redundant any likelihood that you sort of know the story. Where from? Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, as Suzuki cheerily declares. Magical fish-girl Brunhilde, who lives under the ocean with her wizardly old man Fujimoto, longs to surrender the waves and wonder for a life with new friend Sosuke, a boy living in a port town. But her decision to sprout land-legs disrupts nature’s balance, causing tsunamis as Fujimoto struggles to reel her in.
“It’s a movie for five-year-olds,” Miyazaki tells us on the extras. But he doesn’t talk down to youngstrels: kids’ hell-for-leather waywardness gets as much attention as their capacities for innocent wonder. Yes, he fulfils his aim “to express the kind, carefree heart of children”. But he also surfs “the ruthless energy that’s directed this way and that, uncontrollable” in the young. Watch Ponyo’s thrilling dash over wave-tops in this context and her rush-of-love pursuit of Sosuke’s car gains rippling currents of characterisation.
This isn’t childhood viewed through sugar-glazed lenses. Ponyo’s rapacious appetite to devour captures something true of the young. Her lovely encounter with a baby is likewise filled with offbeat conviction, Ponyo’s gurning face filling the baby’s view as rivers of snot flood from the sprog’s conk.
A balance of the magical with the quotidian proves crucial. The texture of bread being torn and the otherworldly blossoming of underwater life receive equal focus. Grannies and parents are given as much attention as the tykes who flap at their ankles. When Toshio Suzuki says “Miyazaki doesn’t cheat on developing characters”, he isn’t blowing hot air. He’s just giving his friend and collaborator his due.
Miyazaki’s chosen style packs purpose too. Ponyo’s pastels are soft and gentle yet clear and lucid – a mellow miracle on Blu-ray. Sudden flushes of colour impact beautifully. The screen blossoms as Sosuke’s dad flashes on all the lights of his boat at once. The golden clusters of fish accompanying Ponyo’s mystical mum (in the English dub, Cate Blanchett talks in wafty Rings-speak) glow from within. Miyazaki makes us all five-year-olds again.
Eco-messages, meanwhile, play lightly enough. Ponyo gets caught in a rubble-strewn net; Fujimoto curses people’s lassitude. “Humans are disgusting,” he scowls. “All this waste.” But Miyazaki skips over any deep waters, neither neglecting subtexts nor smacking us in the kisser with old wet fish.
Extras-wise the haul is tasty, give or take a few bones. The latter come in the shape of an intro from Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, glowing like proud parents but perhaps exuding too much in the way of self-congratulation. Happily, US-dub voices Tina Fey, Noah Cyrus (Miley’s sister) and Frankie Jonas (yes, another Jonas brother) prove unassuming enough not to elicit vehemence from Ghibli purists.
Elsewhere, PiP storyboards accompany the film and creative-personnel encounters fill the various Making Of entries. Suzuki, Miyazaki, head animator Katsuya Kondo and others contribute to a school of goujon-sized features, exploring the initial seeds of the film, the Ponyo/Fujimoto relationship, Joe Hisaishi’s score, voice work, Miyazaki’s location-scouting stay in a port town and more besides.
The feats are a tad short but big on heart. John Lasseter’s sit-down chat with Miyazaki is typical: it’s over in a three-minute blink but the Pixar pilot’s reverence rings true. Elsewhere, Miyazaki smokes, chuckles and charms through his extras duties, looking lively as he nears 70. At one point, he gives praise to that “pure intuition that mostly goes beyond what adults are capable of” in children. “Mostly” being the operative word, right? After all, Miyazaki’s still got it.
DVD Extras:
- Storyboards
- Introduction
- Conversation
- Making Ofs
- Featurettes
- Trailers
- TV spots
- Music video
Verdict:
Miyazaki’s soft, gentle pastels are a mellow miracle on Blu-ray
