JUST LIKE MY MOM

065. Gake no ue no Ponyo (2008)

At the risk of excommunicating myself from the world of animation I will say, honestly, that I really didn’t like this movie.  Yes obviously Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli can crank out works of art like nobody’s business and yes of course their creature designs are unparalleled… but alas, Ponyo was not one of their better efforts.

I’ve never read the original Little Mermaid story (which by the way is online in its entirety and I really should get on that, like, now) so I cannot realistically judge how much of this, if any, was influenced by the Disney version and how much of it was merely loyal to the text; but there were enough parallels there to make me think oh, I saw this movie already – and I liked it better the first time.

Miyizaki is consistently praised for his originality but the ‘originalness’ in Ponyo took it in the wrong direction.  I hated how water was drawn, and given that the water itself was a huge character in this movie this was a bit of a problem.  The animation, for the most part, was incredibly distracting and weak – even taking into consideration the stylistic choices of an anime.  The characters and their designs were unimpressive and unappealing and I never once found myself invested in the story.

Studio Ghibli (similar to Pixar – yeah, that’s right, I went there) is a powerhouse and make no mistake, but it has turned into a bit of a drink the kool-aid love fest.  We need to be able to take a step back and acknowledge when they’ve stumbled, and of all the Ghibli films I’ve seen, this is my least favorite.  It has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% on Metacritic but I just can’t understand why.  Sorry guys.

3.5/10