Yesterday was confession time as I got into my own disconnect with the cinema of Hayao Miyazaki, a brand well-respected and certainly cherished the world over but somehow lost on me. His work “nevertheless represents an imagination that…is a welcome dose of creativity in a business sorely lacking it year after year,” I wrote.
With that in mind, the following passage from Drew McWeeny’s Motion/Captured review of the film, which closed the LA Film Fest last night, struck me right between the eyes. I don’t have kids, mind you, but I hear what McWeeny is saying.
And while we’re on the subject, I like that Drew has made his work such a personal endeavor. I was at the screening he attended. His son, Toshi, was right behind me and you could sense his engagement. So maybe I’m reading it with more of an insider’s take than everyone else will, but that doesn’t affect the truth of his sentiments.
Do you know how hard it is to find quality entertainment to share with your child that isn’t based around standard notions of conflict? Just being able to show him something that’s exciting without ever having a fight scene in it is almost impossible. And yet, Miyazaki makes it look easy. There are harrowing, thrilling sequences here, and Toshi frequently got tense or anxious, completely involved in the film, but it’s not because of some dumb fistfight or some tired showdown. Instead, it’s because he invested in the characters, and he was worried for them as they faced these perils. But there’s nothing in it where someone has to fight someone else to “win” the movie, and it saddens me that something so simple seems almost revolutionary.
Read the rest here.
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2 responses to “McWeeny on Ponyo”
That’s how I feel about ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ what Ebert said about it embodies my love for it:
“Here is a children’s film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap.”
I first saw Totoro when I was 9 years old, ten years ago, with my little brother who was 5 at the time. Its stuck with me from then on, and by the looks of it, Ponyo might be just as memorable for me.
I love Miyazaki. Next to “Nine” (the musical version, not the animated film), “Ponyo” has to be the film I am most anticipating for the rest of the year. Time will tell if it’ll be as good as “Totoro” and “Princess Mononoke”. I happen to doubt it, but it should still be among the best animated films of the year (I hope).