Of course I admire the films of Studio Ghibli, as led by the
great Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, That being said, although I find much
of the master’s work thrilling, I believe some of it is overly complicated and
occasionally downright grim. But I’ve just seen Ponyo, a story oriented
toward a young audience, and found it thoroughly charming, deftly blending a
lively sense of magic with the studio’s long-time commitment to the wellbeing
of the natural world.
In watching Ponyo, I found myself thinking about “The
Little Mermaid,” not the Disney animated film but rather the original Hans
Christian Andersen story. That’s why I was pleased to discover that Miyazaki recalled
reading Andersen’s tale as a young child and being bitterly disappointed by its
ending. In Ponyo, which features along with the title character a
good-hearted boy and his mother, five-year-old Sōsuke truly loves his
mysterious playmate, and his devotion allows her to live on in his world
instead of melting into seafoam. Ponyo takes place in and near the ocean:
its young heroine evolves in the course of the film from a goldfish-like sea
creature into a spunky little red-headed girl. She’s magical both because of what she’s
capable of doing (like expanding a toy boat until it’s large enough to sail on)
and because she has an unstoppable love of life.
In the early 2000s, Miyazaki was such a superstar that major
English-speaking actors were eager to voice the characters for his films’
international versions. In 2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle, based on a
British children’s novel, the central figure, Sophie, is played as a young girl
by Emily Mortimer and as a much older one by the ageless Jean Simmons.
Christian Bale voices the exotic Howl, and none other than Lauren Bacall is the
Witch of the Waste.
Four years later, the English-language dub of Ponyo was directed by
John Lasseter and other Pixar honchos. Ponyo herself is voiced by Miley Cyrus’s
young sister, Noah, Sōsuke by Nick Jonas, and his mother by the indomitable
Tina Fey. Key smaller roles are played by Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, and Cate
Blanchett as an ethereal Goddess of Mercy. And the clutch of colorful oldsters
(a popular element in many Ghibli films) is voiced by some of Hollywood’s
finest: Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White.
As always in Ghibli films, characters reflect anime
traditions and do not look especially Asian. For central roles, wild red hair and
a tall, thin frame seem particularly popular. For instance, these traits help
to identify Neeson’s character, the ambiguous semi-human Fujimoto, who
considers himself Ponyo’s father as well as the protector of the natural world.
But the film’s landscape, full of seaside crags. step promontories, and wild
waves, unquestionably reflects Japan’s own dramatic topography. As, in the wake of
Ponyo’s adoption of life on land, the natural order gets skewed, the ocean
boils up into a terrifying maelstrom, threatening both ships at sea and homes
on the shore. Giant waves rock tiny boats full of fleeing citizens, capturing
the sense of heightened natural turmoil we know from Tokugawa-period Japanese
woodblock prints (One classic example: Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic 1831 “Great
Wave Off Kanagawa”). Meanwhile torrential rain pounds the land, submerging
whole villages. The animation in these scenes is powerful indeed, adding hugely
to the dramatic force of what could in
other hands be a sugary-sweet little tale.
The weather gods tell us to expect intense El Niño
conditions later this year. That means, at least where I live, heavy rains
pounding the very dry earth. Who know? Maybe more Ghibli inspiration.
