Five Stars : Ponyo

After I published my first Unwatchables post many of my friends agreed with my observations and some disagreed. In the end the fact that it was replaced in the box office by the less publicized District 9 told me everything I had to know about G.I. Joe. The question remained however, why hate? Aren't there some movies I love? I really dont want to start a movie review site but I think its only fair that I make a post about every movie that I rate 5 stars on Netflix. I decided to do some of two movies I saw in the past few weeks because they deserve the praise and those will be published sometime this week (500 Days of Summer, Away We Go), but first is Ponyo. Again this is not a fair review in the traditional sense of the word since the movies I feature are movies I absolutely loved, although that in itself might be my review. Miyazaki is a god. The scenes that he crafts in his mind are amazing, whimsical and magical. There's few movies that have made me want to really try and see them through more innocent eyes. This is one of them. There is really something that I love about hand-drawn animation and how it reminds me of simpler times in a way. The only argument that I had about the film going in was the simplification of the title from 'Ponyo on the Reef by the Sea' to 'Ponyo', but honestly, who cares? This movie fits perfectly amongst Miyazaki's earlier works and follows the same themes that those do as well. The main difference in this one however is that the overall story is rather simple so even young children should be able to understand it. This is not my favorite of his movies, but it took me to such a wonderful place I couldnt help but smile the whole way through. I would love to see more children's movies just like this one. My girlfriend said it best as we were leaving the theater: If I were five or six years old this would be my favorite movie ever.