Film Reviews - Ponyo (2008)

Figure 1 - Ponyo (2008) - Poster

Ponyo is an eastern take on a western fairy tale of the little mermaid, it is arguable that everything has been pulled out and what is left is the very essence of what made the little mermaid a captivating story. "Ponyo" is a film about friendship, independence, the power of imagination" (Propes, 2008) Propes suggests that the fantastical world of Ponyo is reflective of itself in a way which lends to the environment having a personality of its own, in this sense, it is understandable that the film is about friendship and independence, considering the constant battle of Ponyo leaving the relative safety of her father and the extension of her world, the sea. Ponyo experiences a dawning of clarity, a transition from the safety of her home, to a world much larger and more challenging, but infinitely more rewarding and interesting. 

Figure 2 - Ponyo (2008) - Ponyo rides a boat

Whilst experiencing Ponyo for the first time as an individual geared towards western cinema, it came across arguably distant, after researching this it was suggested that "In the west, the animator is the actor. In the east, the animator is the director of the scene." (Wager, 2018), which is something that begins to ring true when analysing the film, a western audience is used to character-centric cinematography in live-action film and animated film, we are accustomed to understanding the thoughts and feelings every second of the character, these are guided by a single personality which lends to the idea of consistency in a character and makes them feel less disjointed from the world they inhabit. It was suggested that Eastern animation works slightly differently on the whole by passing off a scene to a single animator which means the character doesn't have the entire personality of one sole person, the risk of this is reasonable that it could create characterisation which could come across disjointed and inconsistent to a western audience such as myself. Eastern cinema focuses on the cinematography of the animation, which in Ponyo really evokes scenery and environment which provokes real emotion which is reflective of its characters.  

Figure 3 - Ponyo (2008) - Opening Cinematic Scene

It is easy to understand a defined link between the characters and their environment, emotion is carried through the characters and into the world around them, much like a rhymth instead of a conveyance of empathy through characterisation. During the scene where Ponyo is looking for Sosuke after escaping her home underwater in a fit of rebellion "She races along the surface of huge peaking waves she has summoned up by the force of her power, Ponyo is expressing not only her bliss, but also ours." (Dargis, 2009) which says a lot for this aspect of eastern cinema, Ponyo responds visually to an emotional reaction in its audience arguably creating a fun-loving and whimsical place for an audience of any type to lose itself in momentarily. 

Bibliography:

Dargis, M. (2009). ‘Ponyo,’ From Hayao Miyazaki. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/movies/14ponyo.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2019].

Propes, R. (2008). The Independent Critic - "Ponyo" Review. [online] Theindependentcritic.com. Available at: https://theindependentcritic.com/ponyo [Accessed 1 Feb. 2019].

Wager, C. (2018). Animation East vs West. [online] CritPoints. Available at: https://critpoints.net/2018/03/09/animation-east-vs-west/ [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Ponyo (2008) [film poster]: Hayao Miyazaki: Studio Ghibli, The Walt Disney Company 

Figure 2: Ponyo (2008) [film still]: Hayao Miyazaki: Studio Ghibli, The Walt Disney Company

Figure 3: Ponyo (2008) [film still]: Hayao Miyazaki: Studio Ghibli, The Walt Disney Company