On the weekend I went to see the latest Miyazaki’s film, called “Ponyo on the cliff by the sea”.
We have bought all the dvds from the Studio Ghibli collection, and we adore everything Miyazaki ever did.
Italy has a strong connection with Studio Ghibli and with Miyazaky himself, who showed his love for medieval Italian towns in his films, also he had some good Italian friends who worked in tv (he even named the main carachter after Marco Pagot in “Porco Rosso”), that’s one of the reasons why all Italians of my age know Hayao Miyazaki, we all have seen the serie “Heidi” on tv when we were kids, and I still think it is extremely good.
Studio Ghibli also produced a serie of cartoons based on Sherlock Holmes stories, but in which all carachters are dogs, and while it has been shown in Italy many times, it’s unknown in Japan!
But, coming back to Ponyo, it was really lovely, it is a rather long film, but it has no “dead” moments, it’s the story of a magical fish which get stranded on a beach and gets saved by a boy who wants to take care of it. The fish’s father is a sort of king of the sea, who once was a human and wants his child back, but the fish wants to be a human and live with the boy.
It is told in a lovely way, and of course the drawings are amazing, altough there is a lot of computer graphics involved.
If you have never seen a film by Miyazaki, it’s better late than never! Many of his films have a very strong enviromental story, even in Ponyo there’s lots of rubbish underwater.
My favourite Studio Ghibli films are “My neighbour Totoro” (if you have a child, it is a must), “Princess Mononoke” (one for the grown-ups, enviromental story set in medieval Japan, with the most amazing music) and “Spirited away”…actually, I love all of them!
PS
the photo shows the Italian DVD (in Italy the film came out one year ago!!!)
And let me show off my gorgeous soft toys!!!
Tags: Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli