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Ponyo (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) |  | Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Tina Fey
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $18.75
as of 3/10/2010 14:59 PST details
You Save: $21.24 (53%)
New (25) Used (6) from $17.86
Seller: scratchnspin
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 75
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 786936791761
UPC: 786936791761
EAN: 0786936791761
ASIN: B002ZTQVBQ
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: March 2, 2010 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Young boy and goldfish embark on fantastic journey.
Amazon.com
Ponyo confirms Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki's reputation as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. Loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid," Ponyo is a magical celebration of innocent love and the fragile beauty of the natural world. The daughter of the sea goddess Gran Mamare (voiced by Cate Blanchett) and the alchemist Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), Ponyo (Noah Cyrus) begins life as an adventurous little goldfish. Chafing at her father's restrictions, she goes in search of adventure and meets Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), a good-natured 5-year-old who lives by the sea. Sosuke adopts Ponyo and quickly wins her heart. Fujimoto uses magic to bring her back, but Ponyo's love for Sosuke proves stronger than his elixirs. She transforms herself into a human girl and returns to him during a spectacular storm at sea, but her metamorphosis upsets the balance of nature, precipitating a crisis only Gran Mamare can resolve. Ponyo contains fantastic moments that suggest dreams-- and reassert the power of hand-drawn animation to create memorable fantasies: No effects-laden Hollywood feature can match the wonder of Ponyo running along the tops of crashing waves on her way back to Sosuke. Ponyo is closer in tone to My Neighbor Totoro than Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, and will appeal to audiences of all ages, including small children. The #1 film in Japan in 2008, Ponyo earned more than ¥14.9 billion (over US$155 million) to become the 8th highest grossing film in Japanese history. (Rated G: A few scary moments, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
 Another Ghibli Classic March 10, 2010
A. User
Thank you Miyazaki for another great film. I love Ponyo, she's a real go-getter! Granted, it's not Miyazaki's greatest movie or my favorite (Kiki's Delivery Service), but still well worth seeing. The transfer is great on the standard version (I watch on a Sony Bravia with HDMI connection). Don't think of it as a Little Mermaid ripoff, because it's not. A wonderful story of acceptance that kids will love, and even those over 50 (like myself)
 Unsatisfying March 10, 2010
Atli Hafsteinsson (Viborg, Denmark)
I thought long and hard before giving the film this score, but there are simply too many things that make Ponyo not work for me. This latest animated movie from Myazaki, who needs no introductions, had the intriguing premise of the sea. He spoke of the sea being a character in itself. I was intrigued to see the movie. I knew it had two children as the frontline, but being a fan of My Neighbour Totoro, I knew that Myazaki has an unreal insight into the mindset of children.
The very first scene of Ponyo is breathtaking. Hundreds of fishes and jellyfish accompanied by a breathtaking, oceanic numbers, finally zooming in on a man in a pinstriped suit, creating a bubble around his ship. We later find out that he is the father of one of the main characters, the fish girl Ponyo who wants to become human after befriending Sotsuke, a 5-year old boy living in a house by the sea. She is able to do this with a mixture of her father's magic (which she's inherited) and Sotsuke's blood (a drop of which she licked when he cut himself).
The problem with Ponyo is the vagueness of the story. There is practically no sense of conflict to the story at all. There is no substantial threat to the characters, and they have very little development. That the characters are so young shouldn't justify this, if we remember Mei in My Neighbour Totoro. Also, Ponyo's father is so at odds with practically everything in the movie's universe, it's hilarious and off-putting at the same time. Ponyo herself is, personally, creepy rather than cute (and her numerous little siblings are no different). I don't understand how nobody finds it peculiar that Ponyo, supposedly a goldfish, has a humanoid face (and Sotsuke shows her to quite a few people). It's even weirder when Lisa (Sotsuke's mother, whom he oddly always refers to by name), an intelligent woman, sees Ponyo eat a slice of ham in whole (as a goldfish) and isn't at all surprised about it. The only really developed character, and the warmest, is the loudest of the old women at the retirement home where Lisa works.
What Ponyo lacks in substance, it makes up for in visuals. The movie's highlight in my opinion is where Lisa and Sotsuke are driving down a road continually drenched in waves, on top of which Ponyo is running. These waves take on the form of giant fish. A wonderful piece of animation. The many underwater scenes are beautiful, with underwater creatures big and small swimming. Something about the overall production values of the visuals feel a bit unfocused, though. The morse code scene is then hilarious.
On the whole, however, Ponyo feels like a lot of elements that just don't work together. Sotsuke faces no real trials like other young Myazaki protagonists have faced. None of the characters feel like they serve any real purpose other than to bring Sotsuke and Ponyo together. The film's subplot of Ponyo's magic causing a rift in the natural order and causing the moon to come closer (which explains the flood) is never sufficiently delivered to the audience.
I was simply expecting a better delivery from a master storyteller like Myazaki. Ponyo may only really work for the smallest children, but that's excluding a large part of Myazaki's fanbase. He's one of those filmmakers whom I respect for continually showing people that animated movies can be for people of all ages. Ponyo obviously aims at a lower age group, but I just hope that the children will be more drawn into Sotsuke and Ponyo's story than I was (there is so much courteous and/or cute dialogue that I felt downright embarrassed at points).
Decent, but definitely not the brightest spot in Myazaki's repertoire.
Great, but ... March 10, 2010
P. White (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm a great appreciator of Studio Ghibli, to the point of having all the output on DVD and visiting the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (Japan).
This film is very pleasant but not groundbreaking. The transfer is good.
What enrages me though and loses this item 1 star is the decision by the wretched Disney (the anti-Ghibli in my opinion - oh the irony of it being them who have control of Ghibli's work in the west) to include an HD audio soundtrack for the (American) English dub but only a Dolby Digital 5.1 track for the (much preferred) Japanese original audio!
WHY?! This defies all logic and is an insult to those people who truly understand how a Ghibli movie should be presented. Disney are the McDonalds of the audio/visual world and treat their customers like nothing more than an income stream. Another case in point is the incredible number of unskippable trailers on Disney disc releases. How insulting to force me to watch the same trailers EVERY time I watch the movie I've paid for. Put the trailers in the extras options guys!
Typically well-done dubbing job, BUT... March 9, 2010
J. C. Roberts (Higashi-Hemi-Cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Honshu, Japan)
When I first heard of Disney dubbing Studio Ghibli's films for the U.S. market, I have to admit I approached them with trepidation. I needn't have worried, they did a beautiful job with "Princess Mononoke", "Kiki's Delivery Service", "Spirited Away" and the rest. So when I picked up "Ponyo", I had heightened expectations.
As usual, the voice acting was first rate. Clearly everyone involved with the project cared about the product that would eventually find its way to the shelves of video stores across the nation. Ponyo itself is a beautiful film for the family. I saw it in Japan. You could call it Hayao Miyazaki's twist on Hans Christina Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", but that would be a disservice to the innate storytelling ability of Hayao Miyazaki. There's far more here than a western tale told in Japanese style. This is a story told with heart, al all to rare thing nowadays.
BUT
There was one thing I objected to, enough to take a star away from what would otherwise have been a perfect review. The film ended with a despicable re-mix of the "Ponyo" theme, featuring (gag) AUTO-TUNE. Oh, the pain... the pain...
So, I loved the film. But the soundtrack will not be on my shelf. Auto-tune is an abomination, and needs to return to the pits of hell from whence it ascended.
 Ponyo March 9, 2010
Carlos E. Velasquez
What a precious film "Ponyo" is! The colors and its beautiful story really captivate you. Helmed by Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, at the Japanese animation film Studio Ghibli, this astonishing movie follows the tradition established by Miyazaki and Ghibli, with wonderful animated films like "My Neighbor Totoro," "Kiki's Delivery Service," and "Castle in the Sky."
One of the main characters in the story is Sosuke, a happy kid who spends his day going to school and returning home with his mother Risa, who works in a senior-care facility, which is located next door to Sosuke's school. His father, a sailor, is seldom home because his job is very time-demanding. Their house is located on a cliff in a picturesque Japanese coastal fishing village. One day, Sosuke discovers what appears to be or looks like a goldfish at the beach downhill from his house. He picks it up, puts it in a bucket with water, and names her Ponyo. However, it happens that Ponyo is the daughter of a powerful wizard and a sea Goddess.
With time, the wizard takes Ponyo away from Sosuke, which breaks her heart because she loves Sosuke - and she also wants to become a human. She escapes from her father's custody, unleashing drastic changes on our planet as a result, causing tsunamis, sending earth into pre-historic times (with its fauna and flora), and getting the moon very close to the earth, leading to possible, eventual crash. Only true love will allow the balance of nature to be restored.
"Ponyo" is just awesome. The animation is mesmerizing, as well as its attention to detail. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic `The Little Mermaid," this is a film that all the family will treasure for generations to come. The fantastic Blue-ray edition includes documentaries in which the world of the Ghibli Studios and the film's characters are profiled, interactive games, and more. A DVD copy of the movie is provided on a second disc. In addition to PONYO, the Disney Studios also released DVD editions of "MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO," "CASTLE IN THE SKY," and "KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE" on March 2, 2010. (Japan. 2008, color, 103 min plus additional material)
Reviewed by Eric Gonzalez exclusively for [...] on March 8, 2010.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
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