Out of Frame: Ponyo

The director has stripped things down to their barest essence here to tell the story of the titular goldfish princess who becomes a mermaid after being rescued by a young boy, Sosuke. She grows to love the boy, and longs to become fully human after her father, a sorcerer who was once human himself, and who hates all humanity for the damage they've wrought on the oceans, brings her back to their kingdom.

But Miyazaki isn't interested in a stern morality tale about the toll taken by human existence on the natural world. Ponyo's father may be justified in his anger toward humans, but his lust for vengeance is presented as a trait just as distasteful as his desire to keep Ponyo a fish among her school of twittering younger siblings. The magic within Ponyo, which is as fierce as her desire to become human, has the capability of throwing the entire world, on land and in the sea, out of balance. As this becomes clear, the central conflict becomes a matter not of whether an evil father figure will succeed in making his daughter's life miserable, but rather whether everyone can band together to make Ponyo's dream a reality, and save the world in the process.

All of which may sound epic in scope, except for the fact the movie really belongs to the bond between Ponyo and Sosuke, as he introduces her to life on land. Each new experience, from electric light to a simple bowl of ramen, is greeted with wide-eyed enthusiasm by Ponyo. Large events may be happening around them, from storms that pile up ships like mountains on the sea, to waves that take on animal form as they rise up over the land, but it is all background to the sweet friendship of these two 5-year-olds, which dominates the screen.

Miyazaki's visual palette is similarly restrained. Landscapes are dominated by blurred lines, watercolors and pastels that only serve to highlight the figures drawn with a more definitive hand. The undersea world is no less vivid than one might expect from the director, but rather than the outright fantasy of his most recent films, there is an air of cartoonish realism about the undersea life. The sea creatures all have a vaguely prehistoric air, but always look like things that might have once existed.

If adults can enjoy Ponyo as much as kids, it's not because the movie works on "multiple levels," which is usually how adult friendly kids' cinema is described. The director recognizes that not only are children able to understand and process more than their entertainment often gives them credit for, but that their imaginative capacities often outstrip those of adults. He invites adults to come along for the ride, but only if you're willing to leave silly adult hangups behind. Ponyo's world is one of a particular kind of magic, less defined and more playful than that of, say, Harry Potter. The rules here are the kinds made up on the fly by children in playgrounds, and if you can cast your mindset back that far, you'll be spirited away by the movie just as surely as any child.

Ponyo opens today at a number of theaters throughout the area.