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Just a quick review to say that I saw the latest English dub of a Hayao Miyazaki animated film yesterday, "Ponyo" (or Gake no Ue no Ponyo in its original form), and it was delightful entertainment which also invited the viewer to actually think at times. In case I'm making it sound like it's too cerebral for young children to like, let me say that there were lots of little kids in the screening I attended, and they seemed to enjoy it just fine, without necessarily worrying about any of the larger themes or ideas that would attract adult interest.
"Ponyo" won't replace "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" in my affections anytime soon, but I did find it more enjoyable than two of Miyazaki's more recent works ("Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle"), both of which were quite good but seemed intentionally aimed at a somewhat older age group than this re-telling of "The Little Mermaid" story with Kindergarteners in the lead roles . . . though still with the underlying melding of theology and ecology that I've come to expect and value from Miyazaki.
I did sort of wonder afterwards if the English dub (very well-done, by the way, though it took me a minute to adjust to hearing Liam Neeson's Irish accent coming out of the mouth of a character named 'Fujimoto') contained everything in the original Japanese version, since there was a scene fairly early in the movie that led me to think there might be a bit of "Nausicaa"-style apocalyptic threat to humanity's survival mixed in with the innocent "Totoro"-style focus on very young children, but that darker thread didn't develop as I'd sort of expected it to.
But upon further reflection, I don't think there were scenes cut out for English-language consumption (yes, I was a bit burned by having my first exposure to Miyazaki be "Warriors of the Wind", which deleted huge chunks of the original "Nausicaa", and that experience has probably made me a teeny bit paranoid). Rather, I think the darker elements and possibilities were hinted at (as with the mother's illness and the children's fear that she might die in "Totoro") but presented in a form that younger children would be able to tolerate (going close to the edge of horrible possibilities, including the loss of a parent, but then pulling back before the strain on younger viewers becomes too much).
Finally, among the things I really love about "Ponyo", I have to say that I was most pleased by the depiction of mothers as multi-faceted, complete persons.
Lisa, the mother of 5-year-old Sosuke, is a great mom, but she's also depicted as a young woman who can get mightily ticked off when her husband -- a ship's captain -- takes another cargo run rather than coming home to her as he'd promised. She seems fully human, though her rare anger and displeasure are presented humorously enough -- again -- to be tolerable to young children, as well as highly enjoyable to all the adult women in the audience, judging by my own response and the response of the many mothers around me in the theater.
Granted, leaving her 5-year-old son in charge of their home and his 5-year-old guest, while Mother risks her life driving across the island in torrential rains and flooding to help out the wheelchair-bound residents of the seniors' home where she works might seem a little dicey. But by that time we've already seen how very competent Sosuke seems to be, in spite of his extreme youth, and can perhaps understand why Lisa feels that her son is as safe as he can be on high ground at home, keeping their lights burning for the guidance of any ships at sea, but that the old ladies in their wheelchairs on relatively low-lying ground may need her more just then.
Meanwhile, Ponyo's mother remains out of sight for at least the first half of the movie (well, absent mothers are hardly rare in Miyazaki films -- or indeed in any adventure film centered around children, since mothers put a lot of energy into trying to ensure that their children DON'T get into too many life-and-death trials or adventures, generally). All we know of her is that she's not human, as Ponyo's father Fujimoto once was, and that Fujimoto loves her but also seems to be a little bit afraid of her, since she's an extremely powerful entity. And we see and hear that Fujimoto both loves and worries about his oldest daughter Ponyo, because he feels she's becoming more and more like her mother over time. When the little girl Ponyo is asked about her mother, she replies something like, "She's big, and beautiful, . . . but she can be scary sometimes!" Of course, Sosuke immediately comes back with, "Just like my mom!" (or words to that general effect).
I gotta say, I really enjoyed that. Isn't that what any five-year-old might be inclined to say about his/her mother, who seems so big and beautiful in a child's eyes, but can be scary when she's laying down the law or out of sorts?
Furthermore, this is the first Miyazaki movie that I can remember in which mothers play a prominent, active (and mostly positive) role throughout the movie, rather than being deceased or ill and/or absent, or even self-absorbed and flighty like the heroine's mother in "Howl's Moving Castle". As a student of psychology, theology, and popular culture, I find the active, powerful, and mainly positive engagement of the mother figures in "Ponyo" to be a REALLY encouraging development.
"Ponyo" won't replace "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" in my affections anytime soon, but I did find it more enjoyable than two of Miyazaki's more recent works ("Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle"), both of which were quite good but seemed intentionally aimed at a somewhat older age group than this re-telling of "The Little Mermaid" story with Kindergarteners in the lead roles . . . though still with the underlying melding of theology and ecology that I've come to expect and value from Miyazaki.
I did sort of wonder afterwards if the English dub (very well-done, by the way, though it took me a minute to adjust to hearing Liam Neeson's Irish accent coming out of the mouth of a character named 'Fujimoto') contained everything in the original Japanese version, since there was a scene fairly early in the movie that led me to think there might be a bit of "Nausicaa"-style apocalyptic threat to humanity's survival mixed in with the innocent "Totoro"-style focus on very young children, but that darker thread didn't develop as I'd sort of expected it to.
But upon further reflection, I don't think there were scenes cut out for English-language consumption (yes, I was a bit burned by having my first exposure to Miyazaki be "Warriors of the Wind", which deleted huge chunks of the original "Nausicaa", and that experience has probably made me a teeny bit paranoid). Rather, I think the darker elements and possibilities were hinted at (as with the mother's illness and the children's fear that she might die in "Totoro") but presented in a form that younger children would be able to tolerate (going close to the edge of horrible possibilities, including the loss of a parent, but then pulling back before the strain on younger viewers becomes too much).
Finally, among the things I really love about "Ponyo", I have to say that I was most pleased by the depiction of mothers as multi-faceted, complete persons.
Lisa, the mother of 5-year-old Sosuke, is a great mom, but she's also depicted as a young woman who can get mightily ticked off when her husband -- a ship's captain -- takes another cargo run rather than coming home to her as he'd promised. She seems fully human, though her rare anger and displeasure are presented humorously enough -- again -- to be tolerable to young children, as well as highly enjoyable to all the adult women in the audience, judging by my own response and the response of the many mothers around me in the theater.
Granted, leaving her 5-year-old son in charge of their home and his 5-year-old guest, while Mother risks her life driving across the island in torrential rains and flooding to help out the wheelchair-bound residents of the seniors' home where she works might seem a little dicey. But by that time we've already seen how very competent Sosuke seems to be, in spite of his extreme youth, and can perhaps understand why Lisa feels that her son is as safe as he can be on high ground at home, keeping their lights burning for the guidance of any ships at sea, but that the old ladies in their wheelchairs on relatively low-lying ground may need her more just then.
Meanwhile, Ponyo's mother remains out of sight for at least the first half of the movie (well, absent mothers are hardly rare in Miyazaki films -- or indeed in any adventure film centered around children, since mothers put a lot of energy into trying to ensure that their children DON'T get into too many life-and-death trials or adventures, generally). All we know of her is that she's not human, as Ponyo's father Fujimoto once was, and that Fujimoto loves her but also seems to be a little bit afraid of her, since she's an extremely powerful entity. And we see and hear that Fujimoto both loves and worries about his oldest daughter Ponyo, because he feels she's becoming more and more like her mother over time. When the little girl Ponyo is asked about her mother, she replies something like, "She's big, and beautiful, . . . but she can be scary sometimes!" Of course, Sosuke immediately comes back with, "Just like my mom!" (or words to that general effect).
I gotta say, I really enjoyed that. Isn't that what any five-year-old might be inclined to say about his/her mother, who seems so big and beautiful in a child's eyes, but can be scary when she's laying down the law or out of sorts?
Furthermore, this is the first Miyazaki movie that I can remember in which mothers play a prominent, active (and mostly positive) role throughout the movie, rather than being deceased or ill and/or absent, or even self-absorbed and flighty like the heroine's mother in "Howl's Moving Castle". As a student of psychology, theology, and popular culture, I find the active, powerful, and mainly positive engagement of the mother figures in "Ponyo" to be a REALLY encouraging development.
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I went to see SPIRITED AWAY twice when it was playing in the theater, and I think I may have seen HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE at least that many times before it left the multiplex . . . which should give you an idea of how I feel about even my less-favored Miyazaki films!