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REVIEW: Ponyo


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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:28 pm Reply with quote
This whole debate is redundant, because what childrens film is not a family film, and vise-versa? Ponyo is an old chinese fairy tale, so not really a Miyazaki original. I am, however, intregued at the concept of a father trying to make amends to his son through animation movie making. What ever happened to just talking man to man, father to son, over a cup of tea in the privacy of one's own home? Still, if it means more Studio Ghibli goodness released to the rest of us, long may the family squabbles continue I say. There is already a space for Ponyo on my shelf just waiting for her arrival.
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JINROH



Joined: 06 Jun 2008
Posts: 56
PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:03 pm Reply with quote
Now all I need is a copy on Bluray.I broke down and watched a sub of this off the net,something I usually would not do.And just fell in love with the movie.

My wife and I watched it (the first time) with a nieghbors 5 year old girl,sitting along side,and she totally loved it ! As did we. Smile
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SXAniMedia



Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:30 pm Reply with quote
It's certainly a glowing review.

I don't know if it is worthy of such high marks or not as I have not seen it, but the more and more glimpses I see of the film via screenshots, trailers and of reviews I have read, I'm increasingly looking forward to seeing it - can't wait.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 2:55 pm Reply with quote
While I haven't seen Ponyo, I should point out that Zac's comments on the "nonsensical" tendency of fairy tales actually DO have an underlying context behind them. While I agree they aren't logic driven, they are often thematically or emotionally driven so I would not be quick to say that a fairy tale with nonsensical elements is necessarily as featherweight as you might assume. I mean, there's a reason literary scholars can spend pages and pages writing about the various meanings of such "nonsensical" tales as Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, or the Grimm Brothers' version of The Fisherman's Wife. There's a very concrete thematic context behind the dreamlike episodes of those tales.

Spirited Away and Mononoke and even Howl's were much more overt in the display of their themes because they were much more focused on world building, rather than using a more abstract narrative language to tell their tales.

I'm curious to see if Ponyo successfully utilizes abstract narrative language to tell its tale or if it's simply no better than Panda Go Panda (which is basically random for the sake of whimsy rather than something more subversive)

In my mind, a great movie that utilizes "nonsensical" events to tell its story would be Alexander Korda's A Thief of Bagdad. That's something that works on a completely innocent, carefree level but also on a deeper thematic level as well.
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TurnerJ



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 481
Location: Highland Park, NJ
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 4:29 pm Reply with quote
I expect that rabid Ghibli purists will hate all over the dub no matter what; even a positive review of the dub like this will have them frothing at the mouths of how the reviews in question are totally "wrong" and that Ghibli's movies should ONLY be watched in Japanese or the pre-Disney dubs, claiming that they are SUPERIOR and that Disney's jobs are crap no matter what.

But on the other hand, Disney AND Ghibli make these dubs for the general audience, not for the said fans. And I expect this one to be good. I really do not think I will consider it the best Ghibli dub ever, though, because I like all of them equally, and I don't like hearing people single out selected titles and dismissing the others as garbage, when they are practically not.

I anticipate seeing this one. Hearing that Cloris Leachman is in it is music to my ears; she was great in Laputa, and I expect she'll be fun here too--although I don't expect much from her role this time around.

-Jon T.
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strahl



Joined: 07 Jun 2008
Posts: 69
PostPosted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:07 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I expect that rabid Ghibli purists will hate all over the dub no matter what


hey, have some faith in humanity will ya? The totoro and kiki dub was simply amazing, spirited away was very well dub but the princess mononoke was garbage and unworthy for such a movie, but the cast of PONYO can't be...just can't be better than what they got, Liam Nesson makes his own character rather than copying the desperate and frenetically tone of the original father of Ponyo, the mother of ponyo played by C.B also, very deep, and the children cast also, excellent.

If you like one Ghibli movie, you should watch them all, I love the style of Takahata better than miyazaki but PONYO is definitely trying to capture the old style childhood movies like disney did in the past, I have seen this movie about 6 times already and I seen The cat returns another 8 times. I don't think Spirited away was really the maximum Opus of miyazaki, nor we should wait for "another one" rather I would like to take a rest and see what the minds of takahata and miyazaki can do, even Goro can direct a good movie but the story of Earthsea was somewhat a little "typical" for my tastes, Record of lodoss war was better in that aspect.

But for the ones that are "deciding" if to watch it or not...
really, what do you have to decide to begin with? this is a magical adventure for everyone and if you have seen one you know you can like them all Smile besides "Ocean waves" and "Only yesterday"
(really have to take some time on these ones) The ghibli collection should be watch without regard Smile specially Ponyo Smile
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TurnerJ



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 481
Location: Highland Park, NJ
PostPosted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:50 am Reply with quote
strahl wrote:
Quote:
I expect that rabid Ghibli purists will hate all over the dub no matter what


hey, have some faith in humanity will ya? The totoro and kiki dub was simply amazing, spirited away was very well dub but the princess mononoke was garbage and unworthy for such a movie, but the cast of PONYO can't be...just can't be better than what they got, Liam Nesson makes his own character rather than copying the desperate and frenetically tone of the original father of Ponyo, the mother of ponyo played by C.B also, very deep, and the children cast also, excellent.

If you like one Ghibli movie, you should watch them all, I love the style of Takahata better than miyazaki but PONYO is definitely trying to capture the old style childhood movies like disney did in the past, I have seen this movie about 6 times already and I seen The cat returns another 8 times. I don't think Spirited away was really the maximum Opus of miyazaki, nor we should wait for "another one" rather I would like to take a rest and see what the minds of takahata and miyazaki can do, even Goro can direct a good movie but the story of Earthsea was somewhat a little "typical" for my tastes, Record of lodoss war was better in that aspect.

But for the ones that are "deciding" if to watch it or not...
really, what do you have to decide to begin with? this is a magical adventure for everyone and if you have seen one you know you can like them all Smile besides "Ocean waves" and "Only yesterday"
(really have to take some time on these ones) The ghibli collection should be watch without regard Smile specially Ponyo Smile


I can't believe that anyone would think such negative things about Princess Mononoke's dub; I thought it was an awesome dub all around, from Gaiman's script to the solid performances from everyone involved. In fact, it's one of my favorite dubs of all time, alongside Kiki, Totoro (both FOX and Disney dub--both are good in their own rights), Nausicaa, and many, many, many others.

For the record, I HAVE seen all the Ghibli movies domestically released here so far, and I love all of them, including the dubs. Hearing that Cloris Leachman is in Ponyo is reason enough for me to want to see it--I really, really adored her as Dola in Castle in the Sky (and everything else about that dub immensely despite the sometimes overdone extra dialogue and considerably older sounding leads--it's one of my faves). I have yet to see Tales from Earthsea, but I'm keeping my expectations for that as low as possible.

-Jon T.
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kyoukix



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:21 am Reply with quote
Something that keeps me wondering is why Sosuke address his mother & father as “Lisa” & “Koichi”. Was that some kind of devise to make the main character look more independent or it is a sign of the modern times? (i.e. “Welcome to 20th Century, George”).
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Elf474



Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
Location: Behind You
PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:46 pm Reply with quote
I was going to go see this but the movie theater in town closed.

Guess I'll have to wait for the DVD
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