I showed up at the theater at SATY at about 8:30 to catch the 8:55 showing of Gake no Ue no Ponyo. I'd been bugging Sakiko-san (our secretary) for two days to find out for me the showtime for the movie, and she finally did just about an hour before closing time today. There was a line, as I thought there might be, but not a whole lot of people came after the line dissolved, so the theater was not crowded at all. It was expensive as all hell, about $12 just to get in, but I didn't mind a bit. The theater was a bit smaller than I was used to, and it had these nifty drawstring curtains that covered the whole screen. The curtains rolled back when the film started, and rolled forward again when it was over. Nifty.
So, I guess I should give some more background on the film. If you don't like any spoilers, well, I'll try to keep stuff in spoiler tags. There are some special points I want to discuss, but I'll try to keep them to a bare minimum.
So, in general, the movie is about a goldfish princess named bukuriko or somesuch (the name was only mentioned once, so I didn't quite catch it). She is kept by a strange sorcerer-type dude with red hair under the sea, but one day she escapes. She ends up in trouble (entangled in some garbage) and is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sosuke. He christens her "Ponyo", and she is so happy with it that she adopts the name for herself. She eventually is recaptured by the sorcerer, but decides she likes humans, and wants to be a human girl and return and play with Sosuke.
So, with the help of her "Ponyo-lings", she escapes and returns to Sosuke, riding on the back of whatever strange magic was locked in that room in the sorcerer's underwater abode. WOW. That was an amazing sequence, Kosuke's mom speeding along in the car while Ponyo chases them on the backs of the fish/waves. It seems that Ponyo's magic will disappear if she becomes human, and this somehow has something to do with the strangely huge moon in the sky and the fate of the earth. Seems the moon would draw closer, causing larger tides, and the destruction of all the land, unless Ponyo gave up her magic? IDK, but when Sosuke spoke to Ponyo's mom at the end, they both agreed to those conditions (he'd protect Ponyo, Ponyo gives up magic), and the world was set right again.
So, how was it? Well, let me put it this way: the opening sequence has the SINGLE most fluidly animated mass of characters that I have ever seen on the screen at one time. I mean, there are literally hundreds of octopi and squid and fish and crustaceans and waterbugs and god-knows-what all all over the screen and moving around at the same time in one giant, vibrant, oozing, wonderful pile of visual delight. I loved that bit. Absolutely. All through the movie, the fish and underwater scenes were breathtaking, reminiscent of the jungle scenes in Nausicaa. Another nod to the animation: I LOVED the car chase sequence with Ponyo running over the water, doing sommersaults and flips over and around the backs of the "fish/waves". That was some brilliant animation work. I would've loved to see the storyboarding that went into that. Fan-tastic. The car chase was one of the most exciting that I've seen in a movie, and it only involved one car.
The story: I'd probably have understood it better with subtitles, but I'm pretty sure I got the gist of it. It's... meh. Ok. That's not really the point with this film, though. The point is just to drench everything under hundreds of feet of water and have giant coelacanths and giant fish-monsters and sharks and whales and colorful things swimming all over the place, looking gorgeous. Works for me.
The characters: Precious. Ponyo was absolutely endearing, a precocious little fish girl that has absolutely no idea what this big human world is all about. Sosuke, her grounded yet still adventurous partner, acts as a perfect foil, knowing more than a five-year-old really should (they mention in the film that he's very smart for his age), but still possessed of all a five-year-old's adventurous spirit and curiosity. The adventure they have on the day they are left alone is truly breathtaking, and reminiscent of the flying-with-Totoro bits from Totoro. Simply fantastic.
I have to mention here one bit that really endeared me to Ponyo, and one of the funniest moments from the film (skip ahead if you'd prefer to be surprised). I absolutely love the bit where Ponyo and Sosuke meet the couple with the baby on the boat. Ponyo tries to give the baby some of the soup that they've brought. The mother has to explain that the baby can't eat soup yet, for he's still too little. Sosuke chimes in that the kid still "eats from breasts", if my translation's not far off. Ponyo doesn't understand, and, frustrated with the now crying baby, she pulls out one of the big sandwiches that they've packed, and thrusts it toward the babe. "Oppai (Breasts!)!", she yells plaintively. "Oppai, Oppai!". Had I been watching this on DVD, I'd have taken a moment to pause here and spent about five minutes laughing. This was just too precious.
So, how's this rank with other Ghibli films? I liked it better than Howl's Moving Castle. I liked it better than Cagliostro, but then, I didn't thing Cagliostro was that great, whereas some people do. Totoro is better, but there are many moments in Ponyo that echo Totoro, and in some ways surpass it. It's got that same fantastic "You get to be a little kid again for 120 minutes" feeling to it. It's not really fair to compare it to more serious works like Nausicaa or Mononoke Hime, story-wise, because, well, it's a kids' movie. But hey, so was Totoro - and this is up there with Totoro. It borrows character designs from Howl's Moving Castle (check out the nursing home), and Ponyo is very much like Mai from Totoro, which I guess is part of why the film evokes such a similar feeling.
If you get the chance, definitely check this one out. Even if just for a bit, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli have worked their magic to make you feel like a kid again, and you'd be sorry to miss it.
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Posted Jul 19, 2008