“Ponyo,” the latest film from Academy-Award-winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki is a charming, family-friendly film. Packaged as an old-style animated movie, “Ponyo” uses the dying technique of traditional hand-drawn animation to tell its story. This process makes the film feel older than it is and adds a level of realism and humanity to the movie. The eccentric characters, Japanese themed musical score and larger-than-life story contribute to the magic of “Ponyo.”
The film’s plot centers around three characters: Ponyo, a talking goldfish who wants to become a human girl, Sosuke, an adventurous little boy who loves the ocean, and Lisa, his hard-working mother who longs for her seafaring husband. One day before school, Sosuke ventures down the cliffs surrounding his house and finds a goldfish stuck in a glass bottle — a peculiar sight. He heads into the water to rescue the fish and gets more than he bargained for. The fish he finds, which he names Ponyo, becomes his great friend right away.
The Japanese creation is one of the few recent hand-drawn films in theaters. Also, the animation isn’t super-detailed. Instead of blurring out objects in the background of the frame, the characters and scenery in “Ponyo” become less detailed and minimalist. Technically speaking, this film is not groundbreaking. The biggest surprise is that it was made in 2-D format. It is a laborious process, and the movie was in development for more than three years. However, the movie’s story fits the visual style, so it’s hard to miss the lack of CGI.
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