Anime #4 Addendum

I did forget something.

Ponyo
This film kind of made me feel sorry for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. People go to see Miyazaki films with certain expectations. I felt Howl's Moving Castle was a little too derivative of previous Miyazaki films. On the other hand, if he tried to create something too different the audience might reject it. Ponyo seems to try to walk that fine line, combining a Western fairy tale plot based on "The Little Mermaid" with the Eastern/Miyazaki spin on nature, magic, children and the elderly, and so forth. For whatever reason, the story didn't grab me. I think the conscious decision to use hand-drawn animation over CGI may not have helped either, as the art style just looks "different."

I haven't watched the Blu-ray a second time yet, but maybe it will improve on repeat viewings. I wasn't a huge fan of Mononoke Hime the first time either and that's another Miyazaki film that pushes some boundaries for him (although admittedly I first saw it in the theater in Japan with no subtitles, so that was probably part of the problem). I actually prefer the dub on that film too, because it's complex enough that reading while watching doesn't work as well.