Ponyo - review and after thought

I have a confession to make. I have been watching "Ponyo" several times for the last couple of days. Every time I watch it, I found myself giggling with delight and I felt like a 5 year old again. I must say "Ponyo" is my next favourite movie after "Totoro".

I am a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki's works. They are all visually stunning and they are further strengthened by Joe Hisaishi's lush music score. Each of Miyazaki's film are distinctively different in terms of style, layout and presentation and yet they seemed to share the following common elements:-

• Smoke
• Cloud
• Wind
• Rain
• Water - Sea/River
• Tunnel
• Mountain/Hill
• Lush vegetation
• Magic/Sorcery
• Small children
• Mystical creatures
• The feeling of loneliness
• The blend of ancient and modern culture

When it comes to portraying childlike innocence, no one can do a better job than Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki captures the essence of how small children talk, move, react, look around and think, play around and enjoy the simplest of things in a very detailed and accurate manner. As a result, his 2D characters are so cute, full of liveliness and heart warming.

Some of my friends called the movie childish. The reason they would think that way is because they do not watch the movie through the eyes of a child. Instead, they tend to scrutinise it with logic and reason. Sigh, I guess as children grown up to become adults, they would lose their imagination and creativity as well as innocence.

If you want to examine the situations portrayed by this movie from adults point of view, then the following will happened:-

• Ponyo will be sent to the scientist for dissection
• Sōsuke's mother will be charged by the police for reckless driving
• Sōsuke's mother will be charged in court for leaving two toddlers alone in the house
• Sōsuke and Ponyo will be taken away by CYF and placed under social care
• Sōsuke's and his mother will be charged for kidnapping Ponyo
• Sōsuke's parents will be sent for counselling
• The "experts" will jump in the bandwagon claiming the children suffered trauma and recommended rehabilitation
• The Greenies will make a lot of noise about the dirty harbour and pollution in the parliament and yet do nothing about it
• The Greenpeace will hijack the fishing trawlers
• The local authorities will be flogged by opposition parties for not raising alarm when the typhoon and storm surge hit
• It would take days or weeks to restore the power
• All the adults will be censured for leaving Sōsuke and Ponyo on their own devices and wandered by themselves

See what I mean? Sometimes I think we adults tend to over complicate matters. Why can't we just cast aside our over analysing minds and simply just enjoy the pure childhood fantasy?

Regardless what other people say, I enjoy this movie very much. Like I said earlier, I just want to be a child again... :)