♥♥♥♥♥♥
+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Best Japanese Movie of the Year
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| Disney's poster for the Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo does its best to recall the public's attraction to one of the biggest animation hits in the preceding years, Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003) |
Goldfish Ponyo gradually becomes a girl with magical powers, when it tastes the blood of the boy Sosuke, The two become good friends, while a storm surge ravages the boy's native area.
Ponyo is written and directed by Japanese master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro/Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (1979)), whose 11th feature it is.
It is another wonderful, - and often truly strange! - film from Miyazaki. That Liam Neeson (Schindler's List (1993)) voices the womanly character from the sea in the English language version is just one of these peculiarities, and the classic H.C. Anderson mermaid fairytale also gets a dramatic altering here.
The animation sucks your eyeballs to every single one of the amazing (entirely hand drawn) images, and especially the animation of the treacherous, dangerous ocean is stunning.
Ponyo is also a jolly and quite funny film, and a wise film that is enormously rewarding for all ages, - pure cinema magic. It is one of those rare works of mankind that is so good it could be worth presenting for other life forms (simians, aliens etc.)
Related posts:
Hayao Miyazaki: The Wind Rises/風立ちぬ [Kaze Tachinu] (2013) - Miyazaki's beautiful but languid last film
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 [Hauru no Ugoku Shiro] (2004) - Miyazaki's hugely successful, gibberish fantasy
Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠し [Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi] (2001) - Miyazaki's highly Japanese, enormously weird story of a girl
Princess Mononoke/もののけ姫 (Mononoke-hime) (1997) - Miyazaki's grand, magical adventure masterpiece
1992 in films - according to Film Excess
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 34 mil. $
Box office: 204.9 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 6.02 times its cost)
[Ponyo was released 19 July (Japan) and runs 101 minutes. 12 companies cooperated in the financing and production of the film. Production began in May 2006 in Japan, with Miyazaki's animation concept for the film building on traditional hand-drawn techniques rather than incorporating CGI as he had done in earlier films. The film opened #9 to a 3.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell on the chart from then on, grossing 15 mil. $ (7.3 % of the total gross). It was the film's 2nd biggest market. Japan was its biggest with 164.5 mil. $ (80.3 %), and South Korea was the 3rd biggest with 6.9 mil. $ (3.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Miyazaki returned with Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess/Pan-dane to Tamago-hime (2010, short) and theatrically with The Wind Rises/Kaze tachinu (2013). Ponyo is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Ponyo?
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