Ponyo

Be thankful for Hayao Miyazaki's staunch support for the hand drawn animation style. Where all around him animation studios turned to the computer to help create their works the Japanese director remained steadfastly traditional. Of course the jump to digital has created some great works, or helped flesh out scenes too difficult to be sketched by hand, but it has also seen a great number of lazy films (I'm looking at you Dreamworks, although they seem to be sorting themselves out slowly but surely). Disney can be seen as one of the worst offenders, shutting down their traditional animation studio on the misguided assumption that Pixar had killed the world's want for such works, ignoring the idea that it may actually be a question of the quality of the storytelling that saw the studio produce flop after soulless flop. It came as no shock then that one of Pixar supremo, and friend of Miyazaki to the extent he's the only person now trusted with the English dubs of his movies, John Lasseter's first moves on taking control of the House of Mouse was to reopen the studio and oversee a return to their roots with The Princess And The Frog. As I said be thankful for Hayao Miyazaki as it is surely his continued success in the medium that allowed Lasseter to do this.

Ponyo is a dreamlike, gentle little film with much in common with what may be Miyazaki's finest film My Neighbour Totoro. Both feature mystical creatures befriending real children and a subsequent search for a missing person. The creatures come from nature, and bring subtle environmental messages with them that thankfully don't overpower proceedings as they threatened to do in Princess Mononoke or Nausiaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. Plot is thin on the ground, rather Miyazaki just seems happy for us to inhabit the beautiful world he has created. For some this may lead to frustration, what with our Western pre-conditioning to want things to constantly happen and move forward in narratives of all sorts. But the world is so enchanting that hopefully it should dispel any negativity. The animation is at all times wonderful, and it is a wonder how sequences such as the tsunami can be entirely handdrawn brimming as they are with such awesome complexity and movement. Under the ocean is a sight to behold, it is always teeming with life and seems to be alive itself as it has eyes and waves appear like giant fish while the on land world has a simplicity to its art style that's actually quite refreshing in these days of unnecessary stylistic clutter. Witness Sosuke's house which looks to have been drawn and coloured with pencils, making it seem almost like the ideal house in a kid's picture of home. And that's the key to understanding Ponyo, this is the world from the perspective of a five year old. Tapping into your inner child is a must.

As with all these pictures the choice lies in whether to watch the English or Japanese dub, with subtitles. I watched the former and it features some big names like Liam Neeson, Kate Blancett, and Matt Damon. The first two appear to have been typecast as the roles are similar to live action stuff they've done and the performances aren't the best. Damon barely features and it seems he's only here to put his name on the poster, although he's perfectly fine in the little he does do. Where the casting does succeed is in the use of comic actors and children. The latter are the youngest in the Jonas and Cyrus clans and are absolutely fantastic giving Sosuke and Ponyo the right levels of childlike wonder and energy. Comedians tend to make really good voice actors and here is no exception as Tina Fey excels as Sosuke's mother Lisa but the highlights are most definitely Betty White and Cloris Leachman as two of the old women at the nursing home, they're joined by a third voiced well by Lily Tomlin, who steal the show with their sheer enthusiasm for their characters. Leachman's line about letting a fish lick her is downright hilarious in construction and delivery.

Ponyo is a little treat. It ranks as one of Miyazaki's lesser works, but put simply a minor film from him still contains more beauty, wonder, and creativity than five years worth of Hollywood output. It is a joy just to spend time in the world Miyazaki and his team has created, one of intertwining simplicity and complexity and there's not a pixel in sight. In that sense it's reassuringly old fashioned. I for one am thankful.