It's rare that I'm totally wowed by a kids' movie.
We took our daughter and son to see this Japanese film tonight at The Cumberland, and we were just as impressed as the kids were.
The movie has an environmental theme, but isn't preachy. It's magical and cool, and age-appropriate for our 4.5 and 2.5 year-olds by virtue of its pace and content. Our little guy was pretending to be Ponyo [falling asleep and turning back into a fish] all the way home.
We usually find that Disney movies are too frenetically-paced for our little ones, and that some of the content is questionable as they try to sneak jokes in that are really meant for the adults watching.
With this in mind, we are REALLY impressed by Disney for presenting this film to a North American audience. They dubbed it with famous American actors' voices (people like Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Tina Fey & Lily Tomlin, to name a few).
Refreshingly, there were none of the ubiquitous baby bottles that you see in ALL American products for kids, and the character Ponyo even has breastfeeding explained to her by a nursing mom in this movie! I was so happy!
It was also a nice intro to some elements of Japanese culture and film for our babes.
We read some reviews that questioned "why the two five-year-olds get left at home in an emergency", or that called it "too weird" ...but this film is pure fantasy, so why not just embrace it for what it is, and not question it? Our kids found it exciting!
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