Ponyo Blu-ray Review

February 27, 2010

Disney's North American Blu-ray treatment of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo ignited an uproar the day it was announced. How dare the Mouse House favor the English language dub featuring the star-studded voices of Cate Blanchett, Noah Cryus, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin and Betty White for lossless audio over the original Japanese dialogue track? They most certainly did to appeal to the North American viewing "masses" and the result is a high definition release that is technically not entirely HD.

Ponyo is a magical reimagining of themes from The Little Mermaid designed to capture the imagination of young children, or those still young at heart, at the expense of alienating audiences seeking something more mature. It is touching and heartbreaking as a small fish, Ponyo, is saved from certain death by a young boy only to be plucked from the boy's care by her father, a sort of ambassador of the sea. At the behest of Ponyo's worrisome father, the fish returns to the young boy as a small girl after tasting human blood and predictably upsets the delicate balance of nature with her presence and acceptance among humans.

Miyazaki films are distinguishable by their wondrous vibrant worlds and storytelling that delves beyond superficial plotlines. Ponyo's magical seaside community and seas that come to life are distinctly Miyazaki in design, but a surprisingly intelligible and straightforward story veers slightly from the filmmaker's more complex pedigree. Its ease to follow and marketability might be why Ponyo is the only Miyazaki film coming to Blu-ray at this time (three others are being released the same day exclusively on DVD).

High-Def Presentation
American audiences were forced to watch Ponyo theatrically with the English dub what while professionally handled with A-list talent takes something away from the film's intent. Miyazaki's animation style is more anime than Western which does not mesh cleanly with predominantly American voices. The original Japanese track is offered on this Blu-ray release which is much appreciated, though it is only available in lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital as found on the standard DVD. The English dub, however, boasts a superior 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossy track. Unfortunately while the pastel colors and broad brush strokes of Miyazaki's animation are virtually flawless in 1080p video, this Blu-ray release of Ponyo does not include a true combined audio and video high definition presentation of the film as it was originally intended to be seen.

Beyond the Feature
Disney offers an optional short introduction to Meet Ponyo that can be played attached to the beginning of the film or separately. The feature film can also be watched with optional pop-up Storyboards to compare early ideas with the finished product.

The real bonus destination not to be missed is The World of Ghibli, a two-part feature with the first half comprised of a series of short (2-3 minutes each), informative featurettes. All the material is worth exploring but having to individually click on two screens worth of links to view each one is cumbersome. The second part is a cool interactive map that allows you to explore the lands of Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro.

Meet Ponyo featurette
PiP Storyboards
The World of Ghibli
- A Conversation with Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter
- Creating Ponyo
- Ponyo & Fujimoto
- The Nursery
- Producer's Perspective: Telling the Story
- The Locations of Ponyo
- Scoring Miyazaki
- Originals Japanese Trailers (2 total)
- Behind the Microphone: The Voices of Ponyo
- My Neighbor Totoro: Creating MNT
- Kiki's Delivery Service: Creating KDS
- Castle in the Sky: Character Sketches
- Enter the Lands

All of the above mentioned bonus features are in high definition. Rounding out the extras is a second disc that includes the DVD version of the film. A digital copy is not included, though an embossed outer sleeve is.

With an ample supply of informational extras and a great video transfer, Ponyo's arrival on Blu-ray Disc is an almost perfect package for fans of Miyazaki and a great starting point for Studio Ghibli newcomers. The lack of a lossless Japanese audio track is a big caveat for high-def sticklers that will have to be weighed strongly before deciding to purchase this two-disc set.

- Dan Bradley

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Cheers:

Miyazaki's visuals continue to impress

Wide selection of bonus features

Great story for kids

Jeers:

No Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio track

Bonus features too spread out

May be too simplistic for some adults

Overall:
7.5