Site icon Snob Essentials

Ponyo, Lovely But Scary

ponyo.jpg

I love Hayao Miyazaki movies, Spirited Away is one of my all time favorite movies. So you can imagine my excitement when Ponyo came out so I can share it with my tots. We made a whole day out of it – we had lunch and I even promised she can have popcorn and Coke! We got all settled in and the movie begins with the beautiful imagery Miyazaki is known for, it is truly art. I was so happy and I turned to look at my daughter expecting to see a great big smile but instead, her hands were held over her mouth and she had the look of sheer terror in her eyes. We were only 10 minutes in! I held her on my lap and asked if she can give it another chance but I can tell she was really terrified so we left =( I did research and watched all the trailers beforehand, too, and nothing tipped me off as anything other than a sweet story about a fish and a boy. Now thinking about it, Miyazaki movies do have a dark cast to the theme and the bad guys are always eerily evil. The general mood of the movie jars your sense just a tad with the strange visuals and creatures, which makes you on edge and slightly uncomfortable. Maybe that was it because Ponyo, the goldfish with a real face, is totally adorable and the boy is the sweetest ever. Either way I am disappointed I didn’t get to finish the movie and will now probably have to wait for DVD. If your tot is easily unnerved, I would probably skip this and save it for date night. The good news is, the theater manager gave me passes for us to go back for another movie.

Exit mobile version