Mini Reviews - Ponyo, The Visitor, Heima

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
To put it lightly, not Miyazaki's best. I couldn't decide if Ponyo was cute or creepy. I mean, she's a fish with a humanoid head and dude, that's creepy. There wasn't much of a story and what little there was just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Nothing is explained. What I did like though, was the animation. I miss traditional animation sometimes, so this was great. I wasn't always a fan of Miyazaki's character designs, but underlying the seemingly childish drawings is an impressive depiction of realistic movement. Pay attention to how much is captured when the mother is cooking or how there are tons of cars moving about in a parking lot in an otherwise banal scene.

There were a lot of little moments in the movie I loved, including all the scenes where Ponyo is discovering little bits about the human world or when Sosuke is communicating with his father in Morse Code. The movie does move a little slowly, but it's the slow and patient scenes that were wonderful. The overall movie, however, was kinda blah.


The Visitor
Liked this one a lot. It's largely a character piece about an elderly man given the inspiration to jump start his life again. I actually don't want to say too much, because I think it's better if you don't know too much about it and are able to watch the movie slowly unfold. It's not that there's a complicated story or anything. In fact, it's really quite simple, but having no prior knowledge about what to expect from the characters makes it a more engaging experience. Anyway, you'll have to accept on blind faith (and the 92% on RT), when I say it's good.


Heima
Not sure if I should even review this, as I didn't stay to watch the whole thing. It's a documentary on Sigur Ros when they went back to Iceland and gave free concerts all over the country for their fans. Mostly it comprised of their performances with mini interviews of the band members. I really like their one song, Hoppipolla, which was used in the Planet Earth trailer, but overall their songs are a little too mellow for me, which is why I didn't sit through to the end. I guess this wasn't much of a review, so it all works out.