Up

Wow... Never even heard of it...

 

Hand-drawn animation from the Japanese master, Miyazaki:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/REVIEWS/908129989

Classic Ebert here

 

Ebert is a genius... I can appreciate those Japanimation movies for the amazing quality of the animation, but I just can't get into them on any level. My best friend from college would watch that stuff religiously and he couldn't understand how others didn't see the brilliance there...

 

My wife took our boys to see "Ponyo" this afternoon, but I have to work. I'm so bummed. It's been getting incredible reviews. I loved "Howl's Moving Castle" and "My Neighbor Totoro" and thought "Spirited Away" was good, but not quite on the same level. "Ponyo" seems to be getting more critical acclaim than any of Miyazaki's other films, though, so I may have to sneak off to see it myself on a day off.

 

Despite its incredible reviews, I was very disappointed. Ponyo was just a kids' movie. There was nothing there thematically. The animation was nice.

 

Please, don't judge Hayao Miyazaki by "Ponyo". He and Studio Ghibli lost their fastball some time ago (Goro never had one, IMO). Hayao Miyazaki at 75 percent is better than most of the dreck out there, but this is nowhere near as good as "Kiki's Delivery Service", Nausicaa or "Castle of Cagliostro". It's pretty to watch, but that's about it.

I love me some Ebert, but I think he and his fellow critics are remembering the Hayao Miyazaki that was rather than the one that exists today.

 

I've seen the others. They were good. I agree that the critics might have been allowing his past performance to cloud their judgment in assessing Ponyo.

 

For what it's worth, my wife thought it was great, my 8-year-old enjoyed it and my 6-year-old thought it was the greatest movie of all-time.

 

That post reminded me just how good that montage of the relationship was. The rest of the movie wasn't on that level, but it was still very well done.

 

I remember being not impressed by my initial viewing of the movie. But I'll probably have to watch it again in closer detail, simply because a lot of people I talk to simply adored it.