Ponyo?

[laceemouse]

After seeing the commercials on the Disney channel for the past month (nowhere else, though) DD4 (almost 5) wanted to see it, so I took her and she loved it. However, she spent the whole movie in my lap and cried several times. The animation is beautiful, but several parts of the story are very dark (Soske gets separated from his Mom in a big storm, evil looking sea creatures trying to capture Ponyo), and I got the impression that something was lost in the translation. And the american actors voices are annoying, to say the least.
Marce

We LOVED the voices, it is very impressive that they get such BIG NAMES to do the voice overs for these movies!
The animation is gorgeous isn't it

 

[laceemouse]

We're lucky----we have a Kerasotes theater 20 miles away that shows movies (after the first month of the release date) for $3 before 6 and $5 after! Plus, they give you free popcorn!

So, I'll probably wait until Ponyo is at that theatre before I take the kids. They said it looks more like a Cartoon Network show than a Disney movie. They want to see it, but they aren't 100% sure they are going to like it.

And, I will agree, I only heard about it this week---not a very good job marketing it.

It's not really a "Disney" movie, it is an anime movie made by a very well respected company. The people at Disney love and respect his work so they bring his movies over here for us to enjoy!!!

Comparing this move to Doogal is a sacrilege

The animation is gorgeous and the story is based on The Little Mermaid, with a touch of anime

 

[laceemouse]

Info about Ponyo from Slashfilm.com......

Legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea will finally be getting a domestic release. The film was released last July in Japan, and has since grossed over ¥15.0 billion ($153.1 million). Disney’s John Lasseter has been working with Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy to make the American release of the movie, Miyazaki’s “biggest hit ever Stateside.” Spirited Away earned a little more than $10 million stateside on 714 screens, and the plan is to give Ponyo an even wider release. The movie, retitled just Ponyo, hits theaters on August 14th 2009, and Disney has announced the English-language voice cast.

Noah Cyrus provides the voice of a baby goldfish named Ponyo who desires to be a human, and gets her wish. She runs away from her home in the sea and befriends a five-year-old human boy named S?suke (voiced by Frankie Jonas). Other cast members include Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin and Betty White.



I would hope that /Film readers have seen some of Miyazaki’s films, but for those of you who haven’t, here are the cliff notes: Miyazaki is considered not only the Walt Disney, but also in some ways the Steven Spielberg of Japan. To give you an example of his success, Spirited Away overtook Titanic to become the highest grossing film in Japanese history. His films aren’t just commercial successes but also critically acclaimed both in Japan and in America.

Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke have won Picture of the Year at the Japan Academy Prize (basically the equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards). Spirited Away also holds the honor of being the only anime film to ever win an American Academy Award. If you haven’t seen any of his movies, I recommend that you run (not walk) to the store right now and buy (not rent) Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Tororo and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Thanks for this info. Doogal bad though, WOW! That is harsh! We enjoyed Ponyo, and my kids are teens/tweens. We are anime fans. The story is The Little Mermaid, Doogal had NO story! Ponyo also had an environmental message.

 

[pixiewings71]

We saw the commercial for the first time at the JoBro concert a couple weeks ago. The girls had seen the commercials on the Disney Channel and knew what it was. They would like to see it but they are fine waiting until it's at Redbox before we do. We are not fans of Anime so visually it's not appealing.

 

[Lost in Wonderland]

Spirited Away is by far one of my most favorite movies. Howl's Moving Castle is not far behind.

They are "odd" stories but they are absolutely wonderful and the animation is beautiful.

I can't wait to see Ponyo.

I agree. We love both of those movies and can't wait to see Ponyo. The kids keep talking about it. I don't know if we will be able to see it in theaters soon since we are leaving for DW tomorrow!

 

[DVCBELLE]

We saw the movie today and although it was okay - I was shocked that Disney would put their name on it - although you had to watch all the credits at the end before they did!

There are some things in it that made my mom and I just shake our heads. The boy is 5 and his mother left him home alone with Ponyo (the 5 year old girl/fish) in the middle of the worst storm ever. What kind of mother does that? Also - she drove through an area that was flooded and ignored officials who told her the area was being evacuated - putting her and her son's life in danger. She got mad at the Dad and went and popped a beer to drown her sorrows. The morning after the storm - the kids set out in a boat to find the mom and pass town people evacuating the area and they tell the boy where he should go to look for his mom?!?!?

When my 5 year is commenting about what an awful mother she is - then there is seriously an issue!

I also thought the story was a bit ridiculous that for Ponyo to become a human a 5 year old boy had to prove that his love for her was true. The whole thing was just too far fetched for me.

My kids liked the movie and it wasn't horrible to sit through but I wish we had just waited for it to come out on DVD.

 

[AntePrincess]

Just a heads up on Miyazaki movies: not all of them are for kids. "Princess Mononoke" and "Nausica," while both phenomenal stories, are definitely not for children. There's a great deal of violence and some gore in those two movies, both of which are about the evils of intolerance and war. "Laputa: Castle in the Sky," I've only seen once, but was at best on the fence.

"My Neighbor Totoro," "Spirited Away," "Howl's Movie Castle," "Kiki's Delivery Service," and "The Cat Returns" have all been wonderful for our daughter. "My Neighbor Totoro" is by far her favorite. Just keep in mind that they're very, very Japanese. It's apparently common there for children to be comparatively independent, even for young children to go onto the subway with money from their mother to get something from the grocery store, or to stay home alone. Then again, it seems like it's safer for them to do that than it would be for us here. Some people may not be comfortable with the fact that "My Neighbor Totoro" includes a seen of the family (a father and his two little girls) taking a bath together. That's also normal for Japan. I think that the positive messages of the movies definitely overrides any culture clash, like an entire community pulling together to search for a missing girl, a loving and cooperative home environment, and schools where all the kids seem to genuinely enjoy each other.

 

[Dismom55]

My 14 year old LOVES all things Japanese and is a huge Miyazaki fan. She has seen nearly all of his movies and each time we get a new one from Netflix she watches it first, and then if she thinks its kid-friendly enough she watches it again with DD6 and DD9.

Their favorite, by far, has been My Neighbor Totoro... the 6 year old adored it, and they both "understood" the story and grasped the concepts. I thought it was a very sweet story.

They have also seen, and enjoyed, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle... I think they have seen Princess Mononoke too.

Anyway, all three of them are SUPER excited for Ponyo, and its the first time in a long time DD14 has voluntarily asked if she could take her sisters out in public with her.

My son is also a big fan of his movies, he is about to turn 17 yrs old, would love to be able to take him to see it as part of his birthday, but no time this week end. From what I have seen on previews and such, I much prefer him to see Ponyo than some of the other garbage that is out there. It may not be a film that many adults can truely enjoy, but I can see where kids would enjoy the film very much. When one of the previews was on TV I called him to see it, I got a short history lesson on all the other movies mentioned, he is very much into animae and had already seen the previously mentioned ones, I guess I had not been keeping track of what he had been seeing at the theater.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Yeah, uhh, we won't be seeing Ponyo - the previews just looked strange LOL - we will Redbox it when it comes out.

I agree. We won't be seeing this either. I didn't even like the previews - too weird for me.

 

[limace]

We can't wait! Love Miyazaki-his animation is gorgeous and I find it nothing like typical anime cartoons, which I don't care for. Reviews on this movie have been fabulous.

And not to start a war , but the story sounds better to me as a parent of girls than Disney's Little Mermaid. 16 year old leaves her family and defies her father to marry a guy that she "loves" because he's cute?!?!?! And the happy ending is this 16 year old getting married?!?! Love the music, but was glad when my eldest decided to become obsessed with Bugs Life instead

 

[mjantz]

My kids are dying to see Ponyo. They're big Miyazaki fans & have seen all his previous movies that you can here in the US (I believe). Miyazaki is a bit of an aquired taste but his movies are incredible IMO. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is I believe my favorite. My DD loves 'The Cat Returns' & my sons favorite is 'Spirited Away'.

AFA Doogal being terrible, we own the Region2 version which has the original UK voices & found it much better. I don't know why they couldn't have just used the original voices in the first place. We also listen to the original UK voices when we watch the 2 'Robbie the Reindeer' short movies.

I agree that if you're unfamiliar with Miyazaki rent before you go see it. Its not everyones cup of tea.