P-o-n-y-o!!! Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo in the sea, Ponyo for you, Ponyo for me! Okay, so the theme song may suck, but that’s the only thing abou the film that does. I love living in a world where this film exists. The innocence to be found in this movie about a boy and a, um, fish girl thingy who wants to be human is almost alarming. Certainly something unique in a genre Pixar dominates with its constantly “on” sense of humor and constantly showy technical know how. While there’s no arguing or uprooting Pixar’s place as the dominate force shaping kids (and adults!) imaginations in this country, I find the work there to be at times hollow and usually too sly and clever for its own good. Produced and distributed and nurtured by Pixar’s own John Lasseter (and lets give the guy credit for knowing who to bow to), Hayao Miyazaki, a god amongst men, provides an antidote to all things Disney while at the same time upholding the magic of that company.  

With a cool and breezy hand drawn style that is gentle at all times but forceful when it needs to be (the underwater and storm sequences are exceptional), this is Miyazaki most kid friendly and fun loving feature. The film is about two sets of worlds struggling to coexist, that of nature and civilization (the sea and the city) and that of youth and adulthood. As forces of nature attempt to join or in one case fuse (the eponymous protagonist is a hybrid creature that is anything but creepy and unnatural) and meet each other half way, I loved how Miyazaki has made a film about the environment and about childhood without bludgeoning the viewer with a blunt message in the way, say, “Happy Feet” or “Wall-E” did. Once again, the attention to detail in a Miyazaki film is amazing as every cubic inch of this film is teeming with a life of its own. If you’ve ever looked at sea water under a microscope you will find a world of strange and wonderful life that exist without us ever being aware of it. This film brings that alien world to life with great color and inventiveness. Nothing ironic here, nothing excessive and nothing even remotely dangerous for young viewers. Just… a really nice feeling that grabbed me from the first sea-set shot and reminded over and over me of what kids movies use to be and what they can be. A-

While “Away We Go” and “Paper Heart” were hipster death traps that many (but not nearly enough) were able to avoid, the hipster offering that worked, “(500) Days of Summer,”worked well. Worked for the reason other films of its ilk don’t: it’s emo nature is sincere rather than used as some sort of agenda or used for its own sake (look how in touch we are, look how COOL we can be without even trying). Its use of music is part of the film’s character’s worldview rather than the director showing off. A story that spans the rise and eventual fall of a doomed-from-the-start relationship, “Days of Summer” is gimmicky and sometimes too ambitious for its own good (the alternate reality moments are silly and unnecessary) but reminded me of a modern “Annie Hall” and worth it for the performance by Jason Gordon Levit, who is now forgiven for (a) being in “G.I. Joe,” (b) getting his lame male stripper turned “actor” Channing Tatum (this guy is now in our lives?!) to be in “G.I. Ho.” B