Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea

Ponyo on the Cliff is a complete visual experience and if you even have the slightest appreciation for animation or very visionary films you will be swept off your feet by this one. It's story is bare bones simple there aren't a lot of complex themes here , aside from the deep feelings the images will conjure in your mind.

Brilliantly looking under and over the water , it's another complete foray into the wonderful imagination of Miyazaki and his team. As always your treated to vividly detailed backgrounds and settings , though this one has a distinct look compared to Miyazaki's others - in that it has more simplistic shading and colors , but is incredibly more smooth and fluent than any hand animated film to date.

Even if you don't have kids to take , everyone should try and see this one for a grand musical/visual experience. If your trying to catch it in theaters later this year , you will have to put up with the English voices - but it's a small price to pay to see this on the big screen.

Last night, I saw the new movie, Ponyo, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, in Brookline, MA. It's a wonderful, but intense animation film, which is about a young boy who catches a red goldfish in the ocean, is determined to love and care for it, and the goldfish eventually turns into a human being that is accepted by the boy and his family as a regular human being. There are some intense scenes where the ocean goes dark blue and turns into tsunamis that go up on the land, eventually putting everything underwater, and many different colored creatures in some really intense underwater scenes, but, eventually, everything turns out to be good--a happy ending. A movie well worth seeing, although parts of it might be a little too scary for young kids.

I believe, however, that the movie Ponyo sends an intense message: When humankind messes around with Mother Nature too much, she'll eventually kick back, which is something that happens in real life, both greater and lesser extents.

Many interesting things are being done with animation these days, and this is an amazing example.

It seemed to be somewhat of a return to films like Totoro and Kiki's delivery service in that it didn't have much of a plot, but it was a sweet story and it's worth seeing for the animated water and sea-creatures. i don't remember the mother all that well but is it just me or are miyazaki's movies getting a bit sexier in his old age. First the vampy bishounen in Howl's Moving Castle and now the glammy sea captain in Ponyo.