Ponyo

We saw the latest entry in the Studio Ghibli canon, Ponyo, tonight.  It is a typical, first rate experience that is strongly recommended for the whole family.  The animation is wonderful.  The backgrounds all have a colored pencil look that makes the whole experience other worldly. 

I still appreciate hand drawn animation.  Hayao Miyazaki is the master of it.  Not just the look but the story and movement is solid.  His ability to capture flight through animation has always been top notch.  With Ponyo, he shows that he can capture underwater movement as well.

The voice actors are great.  Tina Fey voices Sosuke's mother, Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett voice Ponyo's parents.  Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Cloris Leachman voice some older women.  Ponyo and Sosuke are voiced by a Jonas and a Cyrus.  They did a fine enough job.  Disney is distributing the film and has advertised it enough, so if they want to put their own stable in the title rolls and it sells more tickets and brings this wonderful film to more US viewers, I'm fine with that.

Sadly, the theater was fairly empty but our showing was at 6:15.  I really, really hope other showings do better.  This film and Miyazaki deserve much better.

I give Ponyo four Billy's.