Movie/Anime Review: Ponyo

Ponyo

Basic Premise:
Ponyo is a curious little human-faced fish girl (you might even call her a mermaid) who wants to know about the world of humans. She meets Sosuke who is determined to take care of her even if taking her from her water world could mean the end of his.

Review:
Rated G to the umpteenth degree. This movie is uber family friendly and all the bright colors and constant movement will delight children of any age. I should know. I was in a movie theater full of kids and didn’t hear one peep out of them. Now the asshole teenagers that were sitting directly in front of me wouldn’t shut up.

Ponyo is more along the lines of My Neighbor Totoro than Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I’m guessing Hayao Miyazaki wanted to do something a little less violent this time around. He succeeded beautifully.

This movie is totally cute and very sweet. No, really. That’s a warning to all you parents out there. If you took a chunk of fudge and a chunk of white chocolate, dipped them in honey, wrapped it in marshmallow, coated that in caramel and then smothered the whole thing in pure cane sugar, you still wouldn’t match the sweetness of this movie. I came out of that movie wanting to suck on some lemons just to take the edge off, or at least get some lemonade out of the experience.

So if you are looking for a huge pick-me-up, then this is your movie.

Previews:
– Where the Wild Things Are – We sat thru the first look and the preview. I think that’s about as much of that movie as I want to see.

– Planet 51 – This looks too funny. I’m looking forward to it.

– The Princess and the Frog – Soon. Very soon.

– Astroboy – Still want to see it.

– The Fantastic Mr. Fox – strong no.

– Toy Story in 3-D – Not going to waste my money. I don’t know why Disney is on this 3-D kick all of a sudden.