Will be uploading actual real life no foolin’ drawings later, but last night I re-watched Ponyo. I’d forgotten how well animated it is, even when put up against other Ghibli films.

For the first time I watched it in English though, since I was doodling simultaneously, and normally I dont care about watching with subs or without but I definitely think it works better in Japanese. The two child lead character’s voices are kind of irritating in english, though I cant explain why, and I normally like Liam Neeson, but it felt like a bit of a phoned-in performance as Fujimoto. Tina Fey and Cate Blanchett were very good though.

Also, part of why it works better in japanese is the fact they keep going on about ‘love’ and ‘true love’….between two five year olds? Maybe it’s a translation thing, like how in English there’s different kinds of love like ‘agape’, and so on, but which all come under the same heading? I dont know, but in subtitles it’s less jarring, lol.

Also, the plot is sort of…odd. I havent watched it in a while, but It seemed that the English dub explained it slightly better, but it’s still all over the place. People sort of casually mention that because Ponyo is turning human…the moon is going to cause the tides to rise? But also she caused that explosion of marine life by opening that well of magiceyness? But having a boy falling in love with her will stop the tides? What what?

Okay, so this has turned into a movie review, but the animation in this movie is stunning, the score is really good too, but it has a lot of aspects that are all over the place, so I’d give it 4/5. (It wouldve been a 3, but daaaamn it’s a gorgeously animated film, even the little moments like ponyo falling asleep whilst eating noodles are so well done)