Ponyo

Ponyo was a show I watched as a child. Recently, I went to a Studio Ghibli popup in torrance, and seeing the ponyo art made me want to watch it again.

First off, the aesthetic. The art was all handrawn (as any ghibli movie is) and you could see all the care and emotion that went into both the setpieces and the characters. The ocean was vibrant, powerful, and had a presence throughout the entire movie. The land above felt like a nostalgic dream. The artists did their best to fill the movie with as many realistic details, yet drew them sylistically. The grass moving in the wind, the sealife scuttling around, the dirt and trash in the ocean being displaced. Even the car felt like it was alive sometimes with how it moved while lisa was driving, bouncing and swerving about.

Of course, the setpiece would fall flat without the characters that live in the world of ponyo. The characters all had their own quirks of personality that came through in their facial expressions and movement.

Lisa is a very forceful woman when she isn’t actively caring for someone. When she walks she takes large strides, her anger comes through when she slams stuff around. I would even consider the car an extension of that force, when she’s driving the car (especially when its raining) her forcefulness comes through in her handling. Honestly, the car felt like it was dead when we find it without lisa, because all the other times we see the car it’s when shes driving. We know lisa works at the old persons home, but we only see how good of a caretaker she is with sosuke and ponyo when she’s drying her off and making her food and drink. Her characterization is honestly so impressive, she has a discernably distinct personality by the time she’s driven to work.

Ponyo and sosuke are children, and certainly act like children do, in different ways. Ponyos childishness comes from her carefree nature and whimsical view on life. She runs around with her hands in the air, takes everything super literally (heres some milk!) and is very open and honest about her feelings. Her mannerisms come across as cute, as a childs mannerisms should. Sosuke is more dutiful, and not as whimsical, but that has its own charms as well. He bows, thanks others when appropriate, and is capable of taking care of ponyo after his mom leaves. Everything he does, duty or otherwise, he does earnestly. He says multiple times that he has a job to do, and he does his best to do it, but it alwasy feels like he’s super careful doing anything, like a child would be.

The overall story is nothing special on paper, but the care in the delivery and how alive the characters are make the difference. What modern films take hours to set up, we see in the first 10 minutes of a character. The bright, colorful and detailed scenery puts me in awe of the world, and the characters funny and distinct personalitys breath life into all the moving parts of it. The story itself isn’t anything new, but it didn’t need complex plots or a shock factor to tie me in emotionally.