Ponyo American Dub Review

I haven’t been watching anime lately, actually almost none. I’ve been so lazy to do anything at all, except I did watch the Perseids meteor shower a few nights ago. But I decided to wake up my lazy self to watch the morning show of Ponyo, which premiered at midnight in America. This review is spoiler free (I hope so) and I don’t actually talk much about the actual events of the movie.

Story

I did a good job of not spoiling myself before going into the theatre, so I had no idea what to expect. The story was very simple and didn’t feel as epic or deep as Spirited Away. However it was very charming and a very heartwarming. The storytelling is very straightforward and didn’t go off in odd tangents like Howl’s Moving Castle. It has a very lighthearted tone and was very humorous. I found myself laughing out loud with the audience quite a bit. There is a lot of imagination in this movie and is very much seen through a child’s eyes. One more thing I appreciate about Miyazaki films is the adult characters are portrayed as more caring and the children don’t act like brats. Sosuke seemed a little too mature for a 5 year-old, but he was such a caring and sweet kid I don’t care. Even the “villain” Ponyo’s dad Fujimoto wasn’t evil at all, instead he was just a concerned father trying to prevent the world from being unbalanced.

Not once did I feel uncomfortable or cringe at something, nor did I feel deeply changed by the movie. There was no big emotional drama and no tear-jerking tragedies. However it’s best to watch this movie and not expect something super deep and full of philosophical meaning. It really much a children’s movie and feels more like Kiki’s Delivery Service. But they’re both charming movies. It’s best to approach it with a lot of wonder and imagination. In that sense, it was a good thing. It made the movie very relaxing for me.

Animation/Art

Ponyo has a watercolor type of feel of it. The backgrounds are very bright and friendly, but a little simpler than Miyazaki’s other works. The attention to detail and huge amount of animation is amazing. Especially for seascapes, there are huge amounts of fishes and crabs, and they’re all animated. The animation may be simple, but the backgrounds are still detailed as ever. It’s not as epic looking or full of fantasy landscapes, but it’s beautiful in a different way. I especially loved the scenes where Sosuke and Ponyo ride in their little boat above the flooded town with all the prehistoric fishes swimming under. However the animation felt much simpler than Miyazaki’s later movies and reminded my of his older works.

Dubbing

The dubbing in my opinion was quite excellent. I was skeptical because of all the huge stars and I thought it just a way to attract non-anime fans. However the voices and the localization of the script felt very natural. While I haven’t seen the original Japanese, everything felt like it fit in. Sosuke, voiced by Frankie Jonas, sounds like an actual kid and he sounds very true in his role. I found his voice very adorable, and instead of sounding like a bratty kid or an adult trying to sound like a kid, he sounded like the smart, sensible 5-year-old he’s supposed to be. Ponyo is voiced by Noah Cyrus and she fit her role quite well. Her voice sounded a little grating at first, but it fit Ponyo’s personality very well. The adult characters are well matched too. The pronunciations were very good as well (almost perfect) and they even left in some “-san”s and “sensei”s in there. I have to admit when it comes to the debate of dubs, I prefer “liberal, but smooth” over “literal, but sometimes awkward”. The script seemed to be well localized, it’s easy to understand for younger kids and all the jokes worked well. Some people say the translation is muddled, but I didn’t notice it, so I wasn’t bothered by it.

Audience

I was surprised how many young kids were in the audience, although there were a lot of teenagers as well. (I went to a morning show) I was afraid the kids wouldn’t be able to appreciate a Studio Ghibli film, especially with Ponyo’s weird transformation and the lack of super duper action scenes. But surprisingly they enjoyed it a lot. I overheard many of them saving to their mommies that they really liked it. The audience was filled with much laughter from both kids and parents. There aren’t many scary moments, although one kid started to bawl when they had to go through a dark tunnel.

Theme Song

Both the English and Japanese versions are disease to the brain. It never goes away…

The opening song is quite beautiful and the original is left in the dub version.

Overall

I enjoyed it very much, but since it’s such a lightweight movie, it’s not as memorable as Miyazaki’s other movies. However it’s still a very charming and beautiful movie. It’s hard to go wrong with Miyazaki.

-shirokiryuu

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