Ponyo

If I am a good aunt it might only be for the fact that I got my niece and nephew into Studio Ghibli films. It started two years ago when we watched "My Neighbour Totoro" together. The two little kids sat mesmerized by this foreign-language film (I read the subtitles to them). We've watched it a bunch of times since then, as well as "Spirited Away". (Tried "Kiki's Delivery Service" but my Thai pirated DVD wouldn't work.) Since I got back from Asia in the spring, I've been gearing the kids up for the latest one, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea".

I've been excited about this movie for over a year, since its release in Japan. I have no excuse not to have seen it since I was in Korea and Japan last year. I guess I was preoccupied. I downloaded it when I got back to Canada, but we never got around to watching it because, unlike me, my niece and nephew have busy social lives. Anyways in August it was released in North American theatres. Disney got their hands on it and dubbed it into English. Hannah Montana's sister and the little brother of the Jonas brothers got the main speaking parts. Truly!

Ponyo, fortunately, was mostly immune to Disneyfication. It was obscenely cute and extraordinarily weird. Everything a Miyazaki film should be.



I should mention that Disney did manage to ruin things just a bit, at the very end. Miyazaki films have charming theme songs sung by what sounds like real Japanese children, not sexed-up tweenaged popstars. Over Ponyo's end credits, we heard a suitably sweet English version of the song. Which part way through turned into a ROCK RAP REMIX. That's when we left the theatre.