Ponyo Time!
Chris Zasada August 17, 2009

I attended the opening night of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film to hit the States, Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea) last Friday. Typical to my usual MO of organizing activities, I was sitting on my deck reading a manga when I decided I wanted to go see the film on opening night with about an hour to spare before the next screening started. I immediately called up all of my friends to join in, yet only one was able to make it due to work, children, or not showering, a sad testament to the perils of growing up. I dragged Christy and the other willing companion, TJ, off to the Franklin Park Mall’s theaters for an expedited night of Miyazaki Magic.

Unfortunately, it appeared Miyazaki left his magician’s gear at home for the production of Ponyo, Had it stood on its own, it would have been decent enough, but when you stack it up against Miyazaki’s other hits like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Kiki’s Delivery Service, it sinks to the bottom of its whimsical ocean world.

It’s not for its lack of parts. Per usual of a Studio Ghibli film, Ponyo is gorgeous to look at, with bright colors, detailed character designs, wonderfully imaginative environments, and nary a distracting 3D rendered cop-out in sight. Even the voice work for the English dub was competent, even though it’s impossible to accept Betty White as a voice actress, since I kept having Golden Girls flashbacks every time her character opened her mouth. Because I watched a bit of Golden Girls with Christy, because I’m just a great guy that way. Yeah, that’s the stuff.

Sadly, the narrative of Ponyo seems to have been swept away into the sea. After talking to a co-worker about the film, I realized it was basically The Little Mermaid without the token villain to be defeated. The basic plot involves a girl fish who meets human boy and decides she wants to be human too, much to the protest of her father, who is a higher up of the ocean hierarchy. If any quirky sidekicks showed up, I would have been forced to charge through the screen, sacrificing myself so the audience wouldn’t have to endure it. At least they would be distracted by a big hole in the screen if nothing else.

I found it refreshing that there was a lack of dire conflict. Without a sinister villain lurking in the background, the characters could grow naturally, and I eagerly waited to see where Ponyo’s tale would weave into. I’m all for the lack of a central conflict, as it provides a different and engaging way to tell a story when done right, like in Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Yet the film seems to change it’s tune at the end when it’s revealed Ponyo’s desire to live with Sosuke caused an imbalance in the natural order (this doesn’t seem to be true),  and the only way to restore things is to have Ponyo and Sosuke be together. Wait, isn’t that like saying the only way to save a stabbing victim is to stab them?

The real cause of this cataclysm is caused by Ponyo when she opens up a chamber containing a powerful elixir which her father, Fujimoto, planned on using to wipe out humanity by causing the life of the ocean to spread at an incredible rate. Various creatures are exposed to this elixir and seem to accomplish exactly what Fujimoto intended. He even alludes to this early on by foreshadowing the consequences of living creatures getting in the chamber.

Without warning, Fujimoto seems to have a change of heart about humans in an unseen plot twist and works to stop the imbalance. It’s never mentioned that Ponyo’s release of the elixir was the root cause of the disaster, which is so painfully obvious yet never mentioned, and the solution seems to be unrelated to the problem.

Speaking of missing plot, it was clear early on that Miyazaki intended to present a heavy environmental message, as the water near the shore was teaming with ridiculous amounts of garbage. Fujimoto even comments on this. Yet they seem to forget about this soon after, and the ocean seems pretty damn clean from then on. Looks like Clean Ocean Action was on top of things here.

Like a missing piece in the center of a puzzle, you can see Miyazaki’s intentions with Ponyo and can appreciate what’s there, but all you can focus on is that gaping hole. I’m confident that if there was one more minute of footage wherein Fujimoto discovers the chamber was opened, the plot would have made more sense. Instead, the audience is left to deduct this for themselves. While there’s nothing wrong with this in principle, Ponyo isn’t that kind of film.

There was a bigger victory that night, however. The theater was at least one-third, if not half full, and it seats at least five hundred people. For a night screening of a Japanese animated film not linked to concepts involving homoerotic fighters blowing up planets while battling, that’s a pretty encouraging sign for the future of theatrical anime. Considering there were maybe a dozen people at the one-night screening of Sword of the Stanger early this year, I was pleased to see triple-digit support on opening night.

While I walked away from Ponyo disappointed, it’s still a more worthy film than the pandering piles that are shoveled onto kids these days. I’m not sure how engaging this film will be to a standard American child, since it lacks zany talking animals, fart jokes, and a toy or fast food tie-in. It’s a pretty relaxed, down-to-earth film, and I worry our children’s mutilated attention spans won’t stand for it, but if you’re looking for something with a little more filling despite some key flaws, check this film out.