anselmdaniel
This review contains spoilers.Ponyo is a Japanese animation about a boy that discovers a goldfish that can turn into a human girl. The magical realm where the goldfish is from, tries to find her.Ponyo is beautiful for an animated movie. Each frame is well animated and the feel of the movie is unique. The color palette is incredibly vibrant and even with this vibrant palette, all of the characters are distinct.The voice acting for the English audio is great. It features well known actors such as Liam Neeson. Likewise the Japanese audio is good.The story is good but requires the audience to watch a movie that does not have a villain. The story has no villains. Each character is willing to listen to reason. The plot is really an adventure the main characters embark on with challenges that nature throws at them.The movie is first and foremost a slice of life movie. The movie explores a realist theme with dashes of fantasy. The audience can see this by seeing that the fantasy elements are only seen by the boy initially. The fantasy elements then expand and the movie ends with the village being in more or less the same condition of when the movie started. Slice of life movies are not for everyone. The movie can be too slow or boring for some audiences.Ponyo is highly recommended. The movie is a unique animated movie that adheres to the slice of life genre.
amishagugnani
I really liked the film to a great extent. It was so good. I am a 17 year old but would have enjoyed it even more if I was a young girl as it was so adorable and cute and made so effortlessly. I could make this review alot more elaborate and mature but would like to keep it quite simple with lucid vocabulary and writing since the film reflects so much innocenes and purity and playful childish delight. So ponyo is a fish with a face ..unusual right. .who starts fancying this young 5 year old boy Soshuke and thus begins her quest to become a human..a great adaptation of little mermaid. I especially loved Soshuke's mom and their relationship since she was such cool mom and an awesome example of a mom and a good human being even if she is flawed like everyone At first I was quite skeptical going into the film as I thought it won't be that good my I was wrong. The animation is immensely beautiful and each frame is art so thats all I can say ..the story and direction are amazing since the characters stay with you and the film just draws you in and you feel the simplicity yet the great depth of the messages and profoundness. Definitely enjoyable and one common thing with spirited away that is very entertaining and emotionally layered so yes 10 stars:).The character development is also really good as soshuke is just a hero.
danbranan
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I think even a sub-par Miyazaki film is better than most other films. Ponyo is Miyazaki's unique take on the Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen, and in many ways it makes Disney's version look trite. Once again, Miyazaki manages to build a world that is simultaneously strange and yet familiar. With any Miyazaki film, you know it's going to be 1) weird, 2) unpredictable and 3) wonderful. If you just embrace the weird, Miyazaki pays off with the wonderful. Ponyo delivers, mostly, but falters a bit on the finish. The first 3/4 of the film is great, but the ending feels rushed and a bit "cheap". The weaknesses of this story are similar to two other Miyazaki films: Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle. Like Totoro, there is an extremely annoying theme song which thankfully only appears in the closing credits of Ponyo. Similar to Howl, the story builds satisfactorily, only to rapidly come to an unsatisfying close. But overall, Ponyo is engaging, interesting and conveys a sense of childlike wonder that is classic Miyazaki.Many people have commented on the strangeness of a 5 year-old boy and an apparently similarly aged girl being "in love", as well as the boy having the maturity level and responsibilities of a teen. While this definitely falls in the "weird" category, is it really any stranger than all of Miyazaki's child characters showing respect for their elders and for each other? This is a fantasy, after all, so if you're going to buy into a mermaid type creature becoming human, why not a 5 year-old acting like a young adult? But after watching the film, I think Miyazaki intentionally set the ages of Sosuke and Ponyo well below the pre-pubescent range. Doing so allowed him to portray this beautiful story without any possible hint of sexuality. TLDR: This is an absolutely beautiful film that is only slightly lessened by some minor negatives like a weak ending and an annoying theme song (that doesn't appear until the closing credits).
annayasha
The Message Boards were one of the main reasons we all used IMDb.We can still look for data, but in time, it'll be pointless to keep coming here: without the message boards, we will go to Wikipedia and other websites to get the information that we're looking for.Hate and trolling comments should be treated as it always have been, by moderators. Besides that, IMDb Message Boards always was a place to go for good discussion and reasoned debate.Make a point to the admins. We want the Message Boards back. Write reviews looping the message.BRING THEM BACK!
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