Ponyo

So, out of all the Studio Ghibli movies out there, this one is probably one of the weirdest, Ponyo. And, when I say that, I mean in terms of the movie itself and also how I personally feel about it. I know a lot of people most likely absolutely love this film, but it's honestly just another very okay movie for me. Not bad, just very okay. I don't love this film, but I also don't hate it. You can tell from watching that this is meant to be a more kid friendly film than some other Ghibli movies. Though, and this is kinda the opposite of how I felt about the last few Ghibli movies. I recently rewatched the film to prepare for this review and I think I liked it a bit less than I did the first time. I mean, it's a very harmless film, like I said, but, I dunno, I just didn't really connect with this film at all like I did with a lot of other Ghibli movies. I'll get into that in a second, but, let's get into the story first. The story is about a small girl creature from the ocean that comes to the surface and begins to turn into a human. While there, she meets a small boy named Sosuke who names her Ponyo and Sosuke does everything he can to keep her around and he's also living with his mom who tries to help wherever she can while also doing her job. Not only that, but Ponyo's dad is furious about her leaving the ocean and so he constantly tries to get her back home, especially since her being on the surface is causing all sorts of damage like the sea going crazy and the moon is going to crash into the world. Yeah, this is something that's weird about the film, it starts off so small and simple, but then just becomes completely insane because there's then another element introduced that Ponyo being out of the sea could destroy the planet. But, I guess to be fair, this isn't really a film that was really meant to be taken seriously, I think it was just meant to be a fun small kid's adventure film because everything that happens feels like it's aimed for kids. The majority of the film is centred around watching Ponyo and Sosuke's friendship develop with Ponyo getting insanely over excited for everything and going crazy for it like whenever she eats ham and them getting into strange situations while Ponyo's dad is constantly trying to get her back. This is just kinda what I meant. I dunno, I just didn't really get into the film the way it wanted me too and I didn't really care much for the characters involved. I mean, I liked them, I guess, I just didn't particularly care that much, especially since I've seen this kinda story done before and I've enjoyed it more in other things like that. Again, yes, definitely a film that feels like it's aimed for children so it can get away with that, but in terms of something that would appeal to an older audience, I'm sure loads of people would like it fine, it's just something that doesn't appeal to me that much personally. But that's not to say the film doesn't have anything going for it when it comes to adults because it does because things like the animation is still clearly phenomenal and they did it in a way where the animation looks somewhat more simpler than other Ghibli movies but still look really great. Again, like some of these other Ghibli movies, I appreciate a lot of what they did and I do acknowledge that this is a good film, it's just not one that I think is spectacular and isn't something I think would appeal to everyone like a lot of other ones, but it is still a good film regardless and there are a lot of great aspects, especially the dubbing. They did a really great job with the dubbing for this like Noah Cyrus as Ponyo, Frankie Jonas as Sosuke, Liam Neeson as Ponyo's dad and Cate Blanchett as her mom. I think they all do a great job and how they do different parts of the film interestingly as well. So, this review was really short and probably sounded way too harsh, but I do see this as a good movie and I am glad I saw it. So, I do think you should see this if you're curious to check it out with the other Ghibli movies. So, yeah, guys, those are my thoughts on Ponyo. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.