MOVIES! Ponyo (2008)

Everyone has their favorite Hayao Miyazaki film. Often it's Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away. People particularly nostalgic will often go with My Neighbor Totoro. One of his films though tends to be generally regarded as particularly "meh" and is almost never on anyone's list of favorites. That movie is Ponyo, Miyazaki's colorful and whimsically loose take on The Little Mermaid. 

By no means is Ponyo a bad film, of course. Even the weakest Miyazaki film is a strong film overall. Still, one of the possible reasons it generally gets ignored is that it's targeting a notably younger audience. The story follows five year old Sosuke as he befriends a strange goldfish with a human head who he promptly names Ponyo. The two fast become best friends. Meanwhile, Ponyo's father is trying to keep her from going to land. He is keeper of many magical elixirs and uses them to help protect the oceans, which are heavily polluted by the land-dwellers.

The movie is a story about five year old children and it's aimed at pretty much that demographic. The relationships are relatively simple, with Ponyo and Sosuke being pure and loyal to each other (as only children can be). The film does take a number of usual Miyazaki cues though. For starters, even though Fujimoto seems like the "villain" of the film, he's not really a pure villain. Yes, he harbors a grudge against humanity for polluting the seas, but he's ultimately trying to look after Ponyo. Though many are very simple, there are complex relationships throughout though. Lisa is often angry at her husband Koichi, who is a merchant sailor and often out at sea. This leaves Lisa mostly caring for Sosuke alone.

Ponyo is full of magic and is another strong female character, even if she does happen to be a bit simplistic. She's supremely entertaining. 

Late in Miyazaki's career, he started to delve more into the strange, colorful, and magical worlds. Of course, he's always had a penchant for that stuff (lest we forget the catbus), but it was in smaller doses. From Princess Mononoke to How's Moving Castle, he began taking full advantage of animation. Ponyo is very much the epitome of this style. Everything in the film could only exist in an animated film. Never mind all of the time spent underwater; there's also all of the creatures, the Mother of the Sea, the wave monsters, and all of Ponyo's magic. It is perhaps Miyazaki's most "animated" film of all.

For all of its whimsical and epic visuals, it's essentially more in the same vein as My Neighbor Totoro. Miyazaki himself even stated that he wanted to make something else kind of like Totoro, but for a younger audience. Ponyo is a bit simpler in themes as a result, but retains the strong female characters and complexities that make a typical Miyazaki film great. At times though, it's a bit more intense than Totoro. 

Ponyo takes a bit of flack sometimes from older audiences for being too simple or not compelling enough, but I'm not sure what really makes it different than things like Kiki's Delivery Service. It's not his best film, but it's still a great film. It's probably middle of the pack. Overall, I'd argue it's better than Castle in the Sky and possibly Howl's Moving Castle. But really, it's every bit on the level of all of his other works. It's just targeting a younger audience.

That, and our overly nostalgic generation really loves to hate new things.