Synopsis:

An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human.

The Freak's Rating: D+ : We,as Americans, often choose to like or dislike things to go either with or against the grain. Though I'm surely guilty of doing this, I failed to jump on the Japanese Anime bandwagon when it first pulled up about 15 years ago and I stay even further away from it at this point. Japanese Anime is definitely a love it or hate it genre, and apparently I am in the latter category. Ponyo is a retelling of the original Dutch story that The Little Mermaid was based upon. Though I can see the artsiness of the style, I don't understand the storyline nearly as well as I did the original Disney remake. Who in the world is Ponyo's father? Why is he underwater sometimes breathing and back on shore doing the same? Gills? Lungs? Which? Why does Ponyo look like a chicken when she attempts to be human? There are so many questions here that the film fails...at least for me. There are some that love it, but to me it is just a case of artsy getting in the way of good storytelling. I'm betting that if you put a child in front of this, then put them in front of The Little Mermaid and make them choose, they are no question staying away from artsy and gravitating towards animation/music/good storytelling.

Suzanne's Rating: B+ : Our girls are really into Hayao Miyazaki's Disney Movies. Their favorite so far is My Neighbor Totoro. So of course, we had to check out Ponyo. I got it as the Red Box rental. In the two days we had it, the girls watched it 5 times! They were very sad I had to return it. Ellie cried out in her sleep at 1 am this morning, "I want to buy Ponyo!" I've never had the girls like a movie that much before. I don't think Ponyo is for everyone, my girls are unusual. I think liking Japanese animation movies is unique...

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