Miyazaki fans despair! Ponyo is a complete piece of shit. I know it's probably been out for a while but I just saw it. Let me start off with the dialoge. I realize Ponyo is a "G" rated kids movie. But the characters are poorly developed so they all just say generic bullshit, or end up repeating words over and over. It's not atmospheric or heartwarming though god knows it tries to be. One of the problems is they're trying to rip themselves off too much... I'd compare this to disney's "Brother Bear," but we all know disney stopped making good movies years ago. The animation is horrid. Okay it's not insanely bad... but when you walk into a studio Ghibli film one of the things you're expecting is stunning animation. Unlike it's predessecors Porco Rosso or Spirted Away the animation seems lazy. Not only is the animation half assed, they throw in some bullshit CGI! Oh why the hell not!? And I'm not talking about the... oh lets make howls moving castle look bad ass with CGI, I'm talking about the... oh this car is hard to draw... lets use CGI!

All of the characters state the obvious! It's like Miyazaki didn't want any of the characters to shut up for five seconds for fear of the viewer using his eyes to figure out what's going on! Or letting the viewer actually get a sense of mood! I mean nothing kills a forebodding scene more than a character thinking out loud. This movie was painful to watch. I love Miyazaki and every movie he's made. But this movie broke my heart =[ Oh and the story is pretty much the little mermaid but instead of a mermaid wanting legs, it's a goldfish that wants to be human. The story has no real villian or the development of a problem... it decides to spend it's time being cute and marketable. Fuck this movie, I've never been so upset about a movie in my life. I would go more in depth but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who, dispite this warning, decides to see it.

But let me leave you with this... never have I wanted a movie to end so badly since I saw cat woman. Oh and the ending! bleh.