Ponyo (2008)

My first Miyazaki film in a theater (to my surprise I found that my sister-in-law was attending the same showing with two of her brothers). Ponyo is the story of a magical goldfish (daughter of a once human ‘evil’ wizard and ‘The Goddess of Mercy’) who is saved from ocean refuse by a five year old Japanese boy and subsequently wills her self to become human. As Ken Jennings has said of the work of Miyazaki, one of the beauties of his films is that they don’t often make sense. It’s that dream logic thing again, an original mythology and a childlike sense of wonder which are the directors two biggest strengths. This is a lovely movie, less ambitious then some of his most recent works, but it ties in nicely to the ethos of My Neighbor Totoro, which still my favorite of the directors films. The movie boasts the requisite A-list voice cast and beautiful animation, as well as a soft handed lesson about the balance of nature. The boys mother voiced by Tina Fay is quite exceptionally realized, a complete human being is rare to see in a ‘parent character’ in an animated movie. Grade: B+