Sometimes I find myself falling back on standard opinions of things which I've already expressed before, but since it's already nearly the end of the workday and I've still got a lot on my plate (being the editor and webmaster of a long-standing literary journal takes a surprisingly consistent amount of dedication), and, additionally, since Culturology is rapidly approaching its one-year anniversary, it seems fair enough to do so:
Already a few weeks ago now, believe it or not (Happy Belated Labor Day, incidentally), I went out and saw Miyazaki's newest film, Ponyo, a return to explicitly child-oriented fare from the best-of-our-times animator. I like graphic profanity as much as the next guy (well, maybe not as much as Nick...), but I'm still a softy when it comes to successful all-ages cultural output. It happens basically never from within American boundaries (most of Pixar's movies (they having, notably, a massive collective crush on Miyazaki) being the one exception), but finding movies that tell compelling stories that are accessible and indeed moving to viewers of a wide span of ages is truly difficult. Most movies that seem like they might tend to add just enough annoying shit to get to either their PG-13 rating (the notion of PG-13 strikes me as one of the dumbest things currently enjoying cultural cachet) or R rating, to make sure that the appropriate demographic chord is struck.
But, again, I think I've discussed this sort of thing before, so I'll prevent myself from going on too much about it. Except to say that Ponyo is an interesting case of the all ages phenomenon, in that it definitely feels like a movie designed to be specifically for children--it's plotting and logic are definitely that of a young person--but it's stunning beauty, vision, and quality make it very appealing for all viewers (though victims of adult ADD would probably be bored witless). Basically, a case of something being Good for Good Reasons. Additionally, the film just incredibly captured the stunning excitement of being alive and being a human, with Ponyo's various "I'm human!"-esque outbursts just feeling so genuine.
But even if it was too kiddy sometimes, the static-to-only-moving-as-little-as-possible colored pencil backgrounds alone were an aesthetic feast. As much as some people make strong cases for the quality of non-Pixar computer animated movies (like Kung-Fu Panda or Madagascar 2 or whatever else), they just can't compare with the thorough-going world building of Miyazaki's movies; style and content in Ponyo are married at so deep a level that most of Pixar's output can't compete either (the only thing that comes to mind at the moment as coming close is the first half of Wall-E). Thus Miyazaki's movies' ability to be compared to the finest art cinema as well, in terms of the care of their construction.
It being after Labor Day now, the book club is officially over, but speaking of visually stunning things, David Mazzucchelli's new graphic novel, Asterios Polyp brings some serious awesome. Great story, strong strong design (simple lines for the most part, but very expressive, and ability to match various stylistic touches to various sequences or bits of content), excellent layout. I would guess that some folks out there balked at the ending, but I thought it really worked (in a rare nod to the anti-spoiler people out there, I'll spare the details for now; mostly because I think everyone should read this thing).
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