Sometimes, you need a feel-good movie.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for art as an expression of the emotional intensity- pushing the envelope to breaking point. But sometimes, all you need is a nice story and animation to go with it, some great voices and super cute cartoon characters and you’re all set for a nice time.
Such is my experience with Ponyo, an anime film by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. It is originally Japanese but Disney took over the distribution and made it into an English version. The voice actors are quite the stellar cast: Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Lily Tomlin and Betty White and several others.
The story centers on Ponyo, a magical goldfish who lives in an underwater aquarium with her sisters. Her father Fujimoto is a wizard of the ocean, who had abandoned being human in order to protect the balance of nature. He is very overprotective of his children and he dislikes humans because of their treatment of the ocean- they way they pollute it.
One day, one his daughters escape from the aquarium and goes up to the coast where she is trapped in a jar and washes into the shore. A five year old boy, Sōsuke rescues her and puts her in a bucket full of water. He decides to protect the cute little goldfish from all the harm in the world.
Sōsuke’s mother works at the local senior center and his father is the captain of a fishing boat. They live on top of a cliff from where his mother drives across to the mainland to take Sōsuke to school. Sōsuke is very friendly with the seniors and they all like him. He shows Ponyo to them and they are all impressed by her cuteness and the fact that she has a face resembling humans.
Sōsuke takes Ponyo to the beach where he finds out that she can speak which is no surprise, given her magical nature. She declares her love for Sōsuke. However, it is precisely at this moment when Fujimoto launches a rescue attempt and takes Ponyo away.
Sōsuke is heartbroken at losing Ponyo and he puts his bucket on top of the fence of his house, just so if she recognizes the place if she decides to come back. Ponyo is equally distressed and wants to go back to Sōsuke. Her father finds it very hard to keep her from turning into a human. Ponyo had cured Sōsuke’s cut finger by licking it and by absorbing human blood she becomes capable of being human. Fujimoto turns her back into Pisces form and locks her away.
But Ponyo escapes, takes her human form and releases all her father’s magic potions into the ocean. The effect is instantaneous; the ocean becomes a hot bed of tsunamis and typhoons. The weather forces Lisa, Sōsuke’s mother to leave her work early and take him back home with her.
A word has to be said about Lisa’s driving. If child services officials ever came across her, they would recommend prosecution on the count of child endangerment. The way she drives a car would send anyone watching on the teeter’s edge. The giant waves of the ocean delivers Ponyo to their drive where Lisa and Sōsuke finds out that Ponyo, the cute little goldfish, had indeed become human.
Lisa feeds and cares for the children and anxiously awaits her husband who is at sea in this turbulent weather. To Ponyo, all experience is new, especially food and she enjoys herself thoroughly. When she falls asleep, Lisa tells Sōsuke to stay put as she needed to be in the senior center. She leaves, with only Sōsuke and Ponyo in the house, both asleep.
Fujimoto had noticed that Ponyo’s human form has created a huge devastation and how imbalanced the world had become and how the moon had come closer to Earth. He calls for his beloved, the Goddess of Mercy, Granmamare who is also Ponyo’s mother. They realize that Ponyo and Sōsuke are in love but if Sōsuke’s love for Ponyo is not true, then Ponyo must wither away as foams of the sea. They decide to test Sōsuke’s dedication to Ponyo.
The children wake up to find that the house had been surrounded by the ocean. Sōsuke wants to go find his mother but everything is submerged under water. Ponyo takes his toy boat and turns it into a real boat with her magic. They set out and soon finds out that the whole town is under water and the inhabitants are all in boats, moving to a shelter. They come across Lisa’s car but it is abandoned. Sōsuke is inconsolable with grief but Ponyo comforts him and they set out once again to look for Lisa.
Turns out that the entire Senior Center has been moved to the bottom of the ocean where the old ladies can finally abandon their wheelchair and run around. All this was done through the magic of Fujimoto and Granmamare. She spends a lot of time talking with Lisa as they await Sōsuke and Ponyo to show up. But Ponyo had reverted back to her goldfish form and Sōsuke is forced to put her in the bucket. Fujimoto appears in front of them and then takes them down to the ocean floor where Lisa and Granmamare wait for them.
Granmamare asks Sōsuke if he will accept Ponyo in all her forms, both fish and human. Sōsuke is overjoyed to find Lisa and promises to love and care for Ponyo. Granmamare then puts a spell on Ponyo to make her human again, this time without any magical powers. They are all taken to the surface where Ponyo, Sōsuke and Lisa finds that Sōsuke’s father Kōichi had arrived. It is at this moment that the bubble carrying Ponyo blooms and turns her into a little human girl.
I think that this movie is not just for children but something that adults can enjoy as well. The animation is superb as are the voice actors. The story is very heartwarming and feel good – so may be cynical jaded folks should give this a try- what have you got to lose?
Ponyo is available on DVD.
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