Evening everyone!
Today I have just seen Hayao Miyazaki's newest film, Ponyo. Before I go into detail about the dub, I'd like to share my impressions of the film itself:
It has been widely agreed that Hayao Miyazaki is a master at his craft when it comes to combining rich animation with thoughtful storylines and similarly imaginative characters. His movies, from NAUSICAA, TOTORO, KIKI, LAPUTA, and MONONOKE to the recent HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE are all not only gorgeously rendered in terms of art, but in terms of moviemaking as well. Can this man do no wrong? Not really, but it is impossible to expect every one of his movies to always be five star marvels. His newest film, PONYO, an unashamedly family-friendly tale of a "goldfish out of water", is as lushly animated and alive with interesting characters as you would expect... and yet this is the first film of his which treads into "lesser" territory. Don't get me wrong, PONYO is not a bad movie by any means. As mentioned, it is a sight for the eyes and is as charming and adorable as TOTORO and KIKI. The problem is that the story doesn't stay afloat to satisfy anyone eager for another engrossing, in-depth plot.
It starts out on a moonlit night underwater, in which we see one Fujimoto, a mysterious (and somewhat neurotic) magician on the prow of his submarine, metamorphosizing plankton into live-size jellyfish. During this, a cute little goldfish (with the head of a human) swims out of his craft and takes a forbidden voyage to the "human world". Before you know it, she finds herself in the arms of Sosuke, a little boy (who bears a strange resemblance to Kanta from MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO but is more like Pazu from CASTLE IN THE SKY; interestingly, the director created him after his own son) who finds himself quite taken with her. What begins is a variation of the "boy gets goldfish-struggles to hide goldfish-loses goldfish" scenario. This is the best part of the entire movie, in which it showcases Miyazaki's fascination with childlike discovery and the struggles of keeping a new friend a secret. It should be interesting to note that he never butts heads with his mother about this.
At this point I am going to take a break and talk about who is my favorite character in the movie--Lisa, the mother of Sosuke. She's caring, kind, and very supportive of her son, but also has a bit of an aggravated temper, particularly when she gets annoyed with her seafaring husband, Koichi, for continually staying out at sea instead of keeping his promise to return home. In one memorable and hilarious scene, where Sosuke is sending a flash signal from the front porch of his house, an incensed Lisa makes no secret showing her disdain for her husband staying away from his family (Sosuke, naturally, softens the whole thing by sending a friendlier message after seeing a light show from his father's ship). She is also a VERY reckless driver, as witnessed in the scenes where she narrowly zooms her car across a dock where a ship is about to pull in. It helps, too, that I happen to have a parent named Lisa, who is pretty much the same person (save for the driving part).
Anyway, Fujimoto takes the goldfish (whom Sosuke has named Ponyo) back to his underwater farm and tries to talk her into staying away from humans. Ponyo, however, who has taken a liking to Sosuke's ham sandwich (and tasted his human blood from a cut on his finger), insists on becoming human. So, of course, she breaks into her father's secret chamber and drinks his magic elixir. Before you know it, Ponyo becomes a hyperactive four-year old with short crimson hair (the spitting image of Mei from MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO) with magic powers; she rides on an oversized tsunami of fish across the ocean in search of Sosuke, sending a hurricane all over the entire town. (This sequence, in which gargantuan ocean waves threaten to swallow Sosuke and Lisa's car as they blaze toward their home on a cliff, is the most exciting in the entire movie.) The storm finally ends when Ponyo finally finds Sosuke and is subsequently taken in by Lisa.
It is after this moment, unfortunately, when PONYO starts to run out of momentum. Although the scenes where Ponyo and Sosuke share a dinner of ham and noodles are cute and funny, many of the subsequent sequences slide into somewhat sluggish territory. The focal point of the plot is when environmentalist Fujimoto and his wife, a diaphanous sea-goddess named Gran Mamare (with the ability to shift from a titanic giant into a human sized woman) decide to test both Ponyo and Sosuke to see if the youngsters' love can save the entire planet, which, at this point, is in danger of becoming totally enveloped by water (the moon having grown to enormous size and satellites drifting into the ocean). Using a toy boat (oversized by Ponyo's magic), the two youngsters set out across their world, now transformed into an underwater aquarium, complete with gargantuan fish in search of Sosuke's mother. These scenes are still a lot of fun, especially when they are stopped by a fleet of friendly passengers, including a mother with her sickly baby.
Naturally, one would expect a finale of tension and real trauma to cap off such a story, and that is where PONYO finally takes on water; the actual ending is both anti-climactic and undermines the joy and imagination that came before. It really is a shame, too, because for the opening hour and fifteen or so minutes, PONYO is the embodiment of a child's watery fantasy captured on film. In fact, the entire aura of PONYO feels like a fairy tale for children, and the movie plays out as such, and it is disappointing to discover that it doesn't finish as strongly as it starts.
On a technical level, PONYO cannot be faulted. The animation is absolutely gorgeous to look at, produced entirely without a single shot of computer-generated-imagery, and naturally Joe Hisaishi provides us with yet another breathtaking musical score; the best moments being the rousing sequences underwater, accompanied by a chorus and a soprano voice. And the backgrounds are lovingly painted and detailed as any other Ghibli movies.
On the whole, PONYO is a good film; a fine piece of animated work which is perfect for youngsters and family audiences. Due to the loss of momentum toward the end, though, it falls far short of classic status. Since Miyazaki at his least is still better than a majority of other animated films, though, I'll be generous and give PONYO a full star recommendation, because any feature of his is still very much worth watching, particularly on the big screen. (Be sure to catch it in the theaters while you can.)
AND NOW....
For the next part of my review, the dub. I have already made it clear that I am a HUGE nerd when it comes to the dubs of these movies, as I've found myself enjoying practically every one of them. So I was hoping that this one would be no different. With the supervision of John Lasseter, the scriptwriting talents of Melissa Mathison, and the backing of Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, I had no reason to believe that anything could go wrong with a dub like this.
And for the most part, it does not. Mathison's script is fluent and natural for the most part, avoiding the occasional stilted sentence now and then (part of that problem is more due to the animation than the acting). I have not seen the original Japanese version, so I don't know how it compares, but I'm sure it is fairly faithful, as Disney's past other dubs have been. Of course, what really matters is how good the vocal talents are to breathe life into the dialogue to make it sound as fresh and fluent as possible.
Frankie Jonas (Sosuke): Harsh detractors of Disney's dubs have been overly critical about the casting choices for the lead characters (e.g. the leads in Laputa, Michael Keaton as Porco Rosso, and the sisters in Totoro), and many of them have already begun filling their ammunition for this casting choice, the youngest member of Disney's popular Jonas Brothers band. Having had no such problems with the aforementioned examples, I wasn't about to put that much burden on him, and I am happily surprised to announce that he surpassed my expectations. Frankie does a GREAT job in this role, sounding very natural and comfortable throughout. His scenes with Lisa and little Ponyo are credited by the exuberance he brings to the role. Only one crying scene in the first half after he loses Ponyo comes across as less convincing, but not enough to bring down the overall quality of his performance. I tip my hat to this guy.
Noah Cyrus (Ponyo): This is a trickier performance to evaluate. Voiced by the little sister of Hannah Montana's Miley Cyrus (another point of contention for detractors), Ponyo surprisingly doesn't talk until about midway through the first quarter. And when she does talk, you should prepare to cover your ears: SHE YELLS MANY OF HER LINES LIKE THIS. On one hand, it is appropriate for the character, but she overdoes it... to the point where she becomes the most grating element of the entire dub. Fortunately, she tones it down in the latter half, and never fails to deliver childish exuberance. Whether that's a compliment to the character or a detriment is up to the viewer.
Tina Fey (Lisa): My favorite voice in the whole dub. It's funny that I always find one particular actor that ends up "stealing the show" in any Disney Ghibli English track, and Fey takes the spot. She imbues her character with just the right amount of spirit and personality and sounds very much like the sort of mother anybody would want to have. Her exasperated scenes and concern for Sosuke are handled in a way that feels very natural to both the character and her overall performance. Excellent job all around.
Matt Damon (Koichi): Now this is a very odd case. Even though Koichi is technically a character in the movie, he doesn't have many scenes, and as such, I couldn't evaluate his performance as closely as I would have liked. It sounded fine to me, but I don't think I'd necessarily say that this was one of the most memorable ones in the show.
Liam Neeson (Fujimoto): It should come across as no surprise that Mr. Neeson nails this role, having proved himself capable of doing dramatic voiceovers for characters like Aslan in the Narnia movies. Contrary to the King of Beasts, however, Neeson gets to show emotions of exasperation and frustration. He never holds back in those moments (the scene where he tries to stop Ponyo from turning into a human is especially funny), and is overall a very nice presence in the cast.
Cate Blanchett (Gran Mamare): In many ways, this is a very effortless performance... but I don't mean that as a criticism at all. Blanchett's portrayal of this sea goddess isn't that much different from Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings. Employ the character with that same serene tone of voice and add a vocal reverb, and there you go! It may come across as somewhat distracting, but all in all it works in her character's favor.
Betty White (Yoshie): Miss White plays one of three elderly women who live at the Senior Citizens' Center. Her character gets to speak most of them, and it sounded fine to my ears. Nothing that I'd write home about, though.
Cloris Leachman (Noriko): This was one of my major disappointments of the dub. Her Dola from Castle in the Sky was, and remains, one of my favorite performances from a Ghibli dub ever, but she doesn't have anywhere nearly as much lines or screen time! And whenever she does talk, she doesn't have very many lines. Her acting sounded fine, but if I were casting this movie, I'd select her as the next character I'm going to bring up.
Lily Tomlin (Toki): Of the three elderly women, only Toki has a distinctive personality, a cantankerous pessimist who always sees the negative side of things. Vocally, Tomlin is fine for the part and sounds appropriately sharp and snappish, but as mentioned, I'd swap places with Leachman for this part.
Jenessa Rose (Kumiko): This little classmate of Sosuke's makes a brief appearance, and is as childish and priggish as you'd expect. No problems.
I had a hard time identifying the incidental cast, but I did notice names like Crispin Freeman, Colleen O'Shaughnessy, Seth MacFarlane, and others in the credits. I've never had problems with these minor parts, and this is no exception, but I didn't really pick out anybody from my first time around.
No dub is perfect, though, and, aside from my quibbles about Cyrus and Leachman, there were two other things that irked me. The first is, while Mathison's script is smooth for the most part, it oddly decides to include Japanese "honorifics" into the dialogue. This includes phrases like "san" and "Sensei". Past Disney dubs have wisely avoided this to prevent confusion with audiences unfamiliar with Japanese culture, but as this is supposed to be a translation for a mainstream audience who don't resort to subtitles, it comes across as jarring and out of place. Not that it takes me out of the film, but I did find it distracting.
My second, and only really major problem that I have is the handling of the film's end title song. The first half is actually pretty faithful to the original version, with Frankie and Noah delivering the childish vocals that accompany the credits over some beautiful still-shots. Unfortunately the second half devolves into a blasty techno-style remix which is subsequently less cute and clearly more of a marketing ploy. Considering that the rest of the movie contains a luscious score and a breathtaking opera number for the opening credits, it's a very odd, unfortunate addition... probably the only major problem I've ever had with any of these dubs. In all fairness, though, it only appears at the second half of the credits.
All in all, Ponyo's dub is pretty good. Not five-star material, but it does its job well. I don't think this will be the sort of dub to challenge fans that predetermine to cast off Disney dubs, but if you don't go in with that attitude, it's easier to appreciate the dub as a whole. Not the best Disney-Ghibli dub I've heard, but watchable nonetheless, Ponyo gets a passing grade as an English track.
And that's the end of my review.
-Jon T. |
