Japanese cartoon ‘Ponyo’ offers a love story for kids
I think the first Japanese anime I ever watched was probably
”
Sailor Moon.
”
I don’t know quite what it was about Sailor Moon that I liked so
much, but I liked it enough that my younger sister taped it for me
and mailed the VHS tapes to me at college where I didn’t get cable.
Maybe it was the simple animation or the lovesick storyline. Or
maybe it was the hero, Tuxedo Mask, who swooped in to save the
teenage heroines every time they were at risk. I watched every
episode that aired on American television and then later, I rented
every DVD from Netflix.
Japanese cartoon ‘Ponyo’ offers a love story for kids
I think the first Japanese anime I ever watched was probably “Sailor Moon.” I don’t know quite what it was about Sailor Moon that I liked so much, but I liked it enough that my younger sister taped it for me and mailed the VHS tapes to me at college where I didn’t get cable. Maybe it was the simple animation or the lovesick storyline. Or maybe it was the hero, Tuxedo Mask, who swooped in to save the teenage heroines every time they were at risk. I watched every episode that aired on American television and then later, I rented every DVD from Netflix.
While American animation has become more complex and high tech, Japanese animation has stayed the same. The focus is on the stories, and not necessarily the look of the film. That can be seen clearly in the soft lines of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film “Ponyo.” Released in Japan in 2008, the film was just recently distributed by Disney studios in the United States. It is loosely based on the story of “The Little Mermaid.”
For anyone who missed it, Miyazaki is the mastermind behind “Spirited Away,” which won an Oscar in 2003 for best animated feature.
His animation is simplistic, but his characters can still be quite expressive as their eyes change from saucers to lines, depending on their mood.
Miyazaki’s stories tend to focus on small children and his latest is no different. Sosuke (voiced by Frankie Jonas) is a 5-year-old who lives at the top of an island cliff with his mother Lisa (voiced by Tina Fey). His father Koichi (voiced by Matt Damon) is a sailor who often stays out for long trips at a time.
The little boy discovers a goldfish stuck in a jar along the edges of the shore. He saves her and puts her in a green bucket filled with water. He names her Ponyo (voiced by Noah Cyrus.)
The trouble is the little gold fish is not just any fish. She is the daughter of Gran Mamare (voiced by Cate Blanchett) and Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), two sea creatures who want her back. Fujimoto tracks down his daughter and uses magic to keep her contained in a bubble. She says she just wants to turn into a little girl and she has her own magic that makes her sprout hands and legs that look a little like chicken feet. When she gets into her father’s potions, she finds some magic that makes her look like a real girl and she swims off to find Sosuke again.
Ponyo’s desire to live on land, however, has upset the balance between the ocean and the earth.
The movie has a very whimsical quality to it, and it reminded me most of Miyazaki’s work in “My Neighbor Totoro.” That movie is about two young girls who move to the country with their father while their mother is sick in the hospital. The children discover a strange creature in the woods who helps them as they deal with their mother’s illness. As with “Totoro,” Sosuke is given much responsibility by his mother in “Ponyo.” He has to be the man of the house when his parents are gone, and when the island begins to flood, he takes the initiative to rescue his mother.
The look of the movie is itself worth watching. The backgrounds in each scene look like watercolor paintings, or as though they have been filled in with color pencil, adding to the whimsical character of the film. It contrasts with the dark and bold colors of the ocean as Fujimoto commands the waves to help him find his daughter.
The voice-acting in the American translation of the movie is especially good. Oftentimes with Japanese anime, the English dubbing is secondary and comes across as awkward. But this animated film has quite a few recognizable voices, and the actors seem to fit their parts well. Cate Blanchett is the godly Gran Mamare, while Tina Fey is the excitable and often irritated Lisa. She actually sounds a bit like Liz Lemon from “30 Rock” in some moments. Liam Neeson keeps his Irish accent as Fujimoto, and since he is a half-human sea creature, it works.
For fans of Japanese animation, or Miyazaki’s work, this is definitely one to see in a theater.
