Ponyo – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

Within the first handful of minutes, when we witness a wordless opening to the film, on the bottom of the ocean, with Fujimoto (Liam Neelson) organizing the creatures of the sea, that elusive and easily thrown around word, art, appears in our heads. Art is easily used and often unjustified, but recognizing the absolute insanity of animating on hand drawn cells by Hayao Miyazaki, art is the only word that should be used. Ponyo is expertly crafted. It’s sense of wonder and imagination cannot be rivaled. It’s not without it’s flaws, but on a pure technical level, it’s flawless.

Ponyo is a bit of an odd beast. While it has the reoccurring themes Miyazaki loves to use and reuse, children and childhood, environmentalism, it tackles love, real love that most mature people haven’t fully experienced between five year olds. It’s just a weird angle to hinge most of the drama and the climax on, and while it features a rather limp finale, Miyazaki riddles us with his incredible imagination, making most of what I’ve said mute. He claimed that with this picture he wanted to tackle water and its characteristics as naturalistic as possible. The film used the most cells ever for a Miyazaki film, and the extras time and effort pays off tenfold. Just to think the water, the shadows, and the color are all hand drawn, really puts to shame most current CG animated fare. No wonder why he has been the only animator to win an Oscar over the reigning Pixar.

It’s kind of funny how simple the film really is, but how effective it is. Ponyo captures the wide-eye innocence of children first rate, as everything feels like we’re witnessing it through their eyes. The film’s pacing acts like a rambunctious five year old anyway, breezily going to and fro. It doesn’t outdo previous Miyazaki efforts like Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, but that’s okay. When an artist is so great, we don’t define his next piece in comparison to his best, but as an old storyteller giving us another tale to enjoy. Ponyo’s Americanized voice acting does hamper some of the dialogue into corniness, but it still doesn’t detract away from some of the best hand drawn animation we’ve seen in a long, long time. Ponyo is absolutely pleasing, transcending its anime origins to be appreciated by all.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Disney has long been the distributor of Studio Ghibli films on DVD, but this is their first American Blu-ray effort and suffice to say, it’s superb. Miyazaki’s wonderful animation and colors are faithfully reproduced in their glory. One cannot see Ponyo in a better presentation. The audio is equally superb. The English dub is in DTS and it’s a busy and bass heavy track. Luckily, for purists, the original Japanese track is provided, but in normal DD. It’s as good as it could be without being lossless and in DTS. I’ll say it again: superb. Now, where’s the other Studio Ghibli titles on high-def?

Meet Ponyo: Here’s a quick introduction to the film by the American executive producers in HD.

The World of Ghibli – Behind the Studio: In HD, is broken up in a variety of parts, all together running 40 minutes. We get a great overview on the film’s production. This is the meat-and-potatoes on the disc’s extras, and it doesn’t disappoint. A must see.

The World of Ghibli – Enter the Lands: This offers a variety of point-and-click games based on the studio’s other films, as well as some new material. Mostly for kids.

Storyboard Experience: In HD, this is a feature length Picture-in-Picture feature that is pretty good, if you’re a huge fan. Taking a look at the original storyboards as the film is running, we get to see the evolution of the film before our eyes.

Other Ghibli Worlds Previews gives us HD trailers of Disney’s new Special Editions of My Neighbor Tortoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Castle in the Sky all out now on DVD. Sneak Peeks gives us a quick look at upcoming Disney Blu-rays. This set also includes a DVD Copy of the film on a second disc.

Conclusion: Ponyo is super sweet and a marvel to watch, as is the Disney Blu-ray.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: