Conflict and Consequences - or lack thereof
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random_guy85 — 14 years ago(August 02, 2011 12:03 AM)
yep and have to agree. musical score is orgasmic beyond belief, and there are great Miyazaki moments like first 4 minutes, Ponyo running on the water made of fish and Ponyo's mom being the ocean goddess was great to watch her moving around
but the story really goes nowhere and considering how adorable the characters were and how much I actually cared for them all, I would have liked for them to have a better story.
Heck is where you go to if you don't believe in Gosh -
minhal92 — 14 years ago(December 24, 2011 06:42 AM)
Mark, I find myself agreeing with your post a lot. Yes I do recognize that this is a children's movie and whatnot but the points made by you are still totally valid. This movie was missing something, I still enjoyed it quite a bit, its still well made but the plot was kind of lacking. I've watched a bunch of Miyazaki movies in the last couple of days (Spirited, Howls Moving Castle and this) and i felt this sadly had the weakest plot
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Madhaxman — 14 years ago(January 02, 2012 09:04 PM)
As far as consequences, there are none in the film. Ponyo is an unruly child who disobeys her father and proceeds to wreck the balance of nature and pull a Hurricane Katrina on a small unnamed town. Is she ever punished? No. In fact, she gets exactly what she wants: to be human and live with Sasuke.
Her Father is a over bearing and xenophobic. You must forgive the film if it believes going against him is the right thing to do.
And its not liek she intended to cause bring chaos to the world.
And what was the deal with Ponyo's dad? During the scenes in his underwater home, he seemed to be intent on annihilating all human civilization with his potions to restore an Ocean Earth, but then at the end he was wishing everyone a nice life Huh? One of the hallmarks of Miyazaki's films (and a fair amount of anime in general) is that many of the characters are shades of gray rather than pure good/evil characters, but this just seemed like lazy character development.
Because he saw how a relationship between a member of the sea world (his own daughter) and the land world was able to restore the balance that he hold so precious.- Fish changing to be a human is ridiculous. Its never too good if you give up your identity or origins for a relationship. Its like the Little Mermaid syndrome in which the relationship was based on neediness and emotional blackmail of sorts.
- Spitting water at your father's face just to go with a boy? Seriously? Holy, this might just be too problematic for children who still dream fantasies. Often time, we don't appreciate what we have and the people that brought us here and cared for us, so a movie like this can be too egotistical.
See my first point. Ponyo was beginning to grow her own identity and individuality, and her fathers response was to try and supress it. The eventual rejection of the identity put upon you by your parents in favor for the identity you choose for yourself is a natural part of growing up.
And she didn't just fall for the boy, she fell for the entire lifestyle that the land life had offered her.
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3PocketCharlie — 13 years ago(September 17, 2012 09:53 AM)
I understand all the criticism, but I think they mostly stem from our comfort with the standard story structure. There are no "exciting elements" every X number of scenes. They just take their journey and have encounters and minor struggles. We expect some sort of big conflict at the end, but it never really happens. The kids arrive and the story just ends.
But the point is not to have any big conflict, just a cute little tale.
And as far as consequences go, Ponyo does not really do anything wrong, besided defy her father's predjuices, so I don't see why she should have to face any major consequences.
All glory to the Hypnotoad -
asprettyasme — 12 years ago(January 18, 2014 06:11 PM)
Really? is this what the world has come to? Do we really have to have conflict and consequences in every movie? Isn't that a little redundant? I like that it was a good movie without too much drama. I don't understand y they don't make more movies like that. No wonder most ppl in the world are under tremendous amount of stress, every two seconds its drama, conflicts and little hope for a happy ending for everyone. I hope this changes in the future.
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memdec6 — 10 years ago(December 27, 2015 04:29 PM)
Conflict and consequences doesn't necessarily mean drama. It doesn't mean some big, dramatic battle or an evil antagonist to fight against. It means that every action a person takes has some outcome to it both good and bad or anywhere inbetween.
Ponyo spits in her father's face. In real life there would be consequences to this. (Well, for many children there would be.) The mother drives like a maniac she puts herself and her child in danger, and it's all good. She barely even seems to worry about driving her son through a tsunami or finding a magical fish-girl. The town is flooded people have lost their homes, livelihoods and probably some loved ones but everyone seems so happy. Yes, this is a children's movie. But that doesn't mean that the people had to act like they were on a picnic. They could have been visibly upset, even if the decision was made not to make a big deal out of it, since this was made for children.
So, the issue isn't that there isn't drama. It's that things happen bad things and no one seems to care or be upset. People aren't overly worried. They're not just trying to stay positive they seem to be having fun.
I really like Totoro. My daughter does, too. She sees sisters playing together and a giant, silly creature. I see the very real worry of a mother in poor health or how frightening it is when a child is missing. There is joy in the movie there are no bad guys or evil plots or anything like that. But those every day fears and worries really touched me, as a mother, and it made the movie go from just a pretty film to something special. -
toddtw — 11 years ago(July 18, 2014 10:50 PM)
Why must there be a conflict? And there is a conflict in Ponyo anyway with Fujimoto. He wants to destroy humans yet his daughter wants to become one.
Sosuke proving his unconditional love for her is what finally gives him acceptance of not only Ponyo becoming a human, but humans in general. Yes, we the audience know that Sosuke loved her from the start, but we don't know whether Fujimoto is ultimately going to accept it until the end. -
silverred999 — 11 years ago(November 10, 2014 03:27 PM)
Kids need beauty and art. I remember when i was a kid, watching tv or movies. The ones that have stuck with me are the beautiful works of art. The ones that taught me the most, taught me to have empathy taught me to think were the ones that were not heavy morality tales. We NEED movies that explore childrens emotions and sense of art and beauty like they explore adult emotions and sense of art and beauty. We need to show children somethingwhere they make up their own minds. Not prepackages morals. We need movies like this.many moviesare moved me deeply and brought back feelings of b2ing a kid. I cried. But there was no clear cut moral, just tough emotions, and personal choices. We need to explore feelings without having a framework shoved over our heads. K