Put simply, Ponyo is The Little Mermaid given a Studio Ghibli spin. Goldfish Ponyo (voiced by Miley Cyrus’ sister, Noah) escapes from her father’s undersea lair and pitches up on land, where she falls in love with Sosuke (Frankie Jonas of the infamous Jonas brothers – what with him and Cyrus, that’s every teenybopping girl and boy across the land itching to see it, then). Because Ponyo is a magical goldfish, she transforms herself into a little girl and has adventures with her new friend.
You can lower that cynical eyebrow right now: Ponyo really is adorable in every sense, avoiding the fake saccharine feel that blights so many american kiddie flicks. But that’s Studio Ghibli for you; if you’ve never seen a film from the masters of Japanese animation then all you need to know is that your inner child will be thoroughly tickled by Ponyo.
You’ll adore it even more if you actually are a child, especially if you’re five, as director Hayao Miyazaki aimed it specifically at kids that age (see right), citing his previous masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro as being “for kids a little older”. This is a fairytale stream of consciousness ideal for younglings everywhere.
What’s remarkable about Ponyo (bizarrely, given that it’s nothing new) is that it’s hand-drawn; there’s nary a sniff of CGI and the animation’s actually fairly crude and simple. It’s a massive style change for the studio but it works, lending the film an innocence that could have been lost by smooth, computer-generated trickery. The extras on the two-disc DVD explore behind-the-scenes admirably – and it’s odd to see artists sitting in front of drawing pads instead of computers...
The featurettes are informative and diverse, packed with plenty of chances for Miyazaki (cigarette ever on the go) to spill all on his latest work. It’s just a shame that the english dub isn’t as convincing as the Japanese one: Liam Neeson, as Ponyo’s dad, sounds as though he’s reading the ingredients off the back of a cornflake box. Still, kids won’t care and you can always watch the original version if you’re fussy. Subtitles are your friend, as are squeaky little goldfish with human complexes.
DVD Extras:
- Introduction by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall
- Storyboards
- ‘The Five Geniuses who created Ponyo’
- ‘A Conversation between Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter’
- ‘Creating Ponyo’
- ‘Ponyo and Fujimoto’
- ‘The Nursery’
- ‘Scoring Miyazaki’
- ‘The Producer’s Perspective: Telling The Story’
- ‘The Locations in Ponyo’
- ‘Behind The Microphone: The voices of Ponyo’ featurettes
- Dubbing session and interview with Japanese cast
- Hayao Miyazaki interview
- Toshio Suzuki interview
- Japanese trailers and TV spots
- Music Video
Verdict:
Glorious family fun from one of animation’s greatest minds: proof that nobody does it like Miyazaki.
