Ponyo on the cliff: Myasaki

I recently watched hayo Myasaki's latest film : "Ponyo on the cliff" which I really enjoyed and was thankful for the return to Myasaki's vivid childlike methods of story-telling, following the last effort from studio ghibli "Tales from earthsea" which wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it lacked the magic and imagination behind the rest of the ghibli films. (Earthsea was made with Hayo's son at the helm, Goro, as his farther was working on the fantastic "Howl's moving castle" and therefore left earthsea to his son, it was also his first attempt at directing one of the studio's feature length animated movies).

Back to Ponyo on the cliff! I wasn't sure if I would like it or not as from the screen shots I had seen of the film I thought it looked too basic, and would like detail, but thankfully I was wrong and it has all of the spirit of any other ghibli movie, it especially reminds me of "My neighbour tottoro" as the focus is on a 5yr old boy who meets a magical friend, (as in tottoro except gender reversals etc) however whilst Tottoro was laid back in it's execution, Ponyo has a bit more action, to begin with the pacing is slow but not too slow and not to the point in which you would lose interest as there are far too many rich visuals to take in and of course the attention to detail also grabs your attention and refuses to let you go.

The basic plotline revolves around a 5yr old boy, (who is adorable and despite being a cartoon has all the qualities and convictions of a real 5yr old) who lives with his mother and father, (although he address's them by their first names so I presume that he is perhaps adopted?) they live on a rocky slope at the side of the sea and each day his mother- who he refers to as Rita drives down the hill, (like a maniac) to work which is a local nursing home and which handily has the nursery next door for the boy to go to.

One morning before they leave, the boy is playing around at the sea, (which is a few feet from the house) and he finds Ponyo, a goldfish girl that longs to be human!

he rescues Ponyo from a jar that she is stook in and takes her home where he proceeds to put her in his green bucket with some water.

He discovers that she likes ham amongst other things, and that she is a magic fish as when he found her he cut his finger which the fish licked and healed. Because of this (Ponyo tasting the boys blood) she starts to become human, (at which point I found her a bit annoying) The tsunami comes because of this disruption to the sea and her mother and father, (her mother is known as the sea goddess) have to decide what to do.

There is alot of destruction caused by the tsunami, which has hauntingly been captured to great effect, but there is also the raw basic innocence of a loving friendship between 2 children caught up in the midst of all that, and how people pull together, and can survive during these disasters with nothing more than kindness and consideration.

I stopped watching the film after about 45 mins so I can't really say anything else in terms of plot, the reason for this is that I got a copy of it from Malaysia and although decent, it dampened my viewing pleasures a little, as I like to watch my films in high quality-color, framing, sound etc and all of this started to grate at me after a while so I switched it off! but I will be looking out for the U.K release sometime this year! I recommend this film highly to any Ghibli fan or even if your not- it's a great magical film that you can sit back and enjoy as your 5yr old self again!

Tank Girl!

Another series of Graphic novels that I just bought, having heard the name for quite a while here and there, (Tank girl has been around since the 80's) I decided to look it up one day! and I found that the strips had all been converted into full length graphic novels, (3 of them) and then there are 2 follow ups, odyssey and apocalypse, and in 2008 there has also been a new wave of Tank girl series written again by Alan Martin and Ashley wood.

It's funny how in some cases the illustrator takes most (or all) of the credit for a book, as in the case of Jamie Hewlett with Tank girl, ie: his name is the most commonly associated with the book, or there's Alan moore, writer of the watchmen, V for vendetta, swamp thing etc, who always takes the full credit for his novels, even though he does not illustrate them, which is fair enough, i just find it interesting how sometimes it is the artist that is most spoken about and sometimes it is the illustrator! (my previous post discusses the graphic novel "girls" written by and illustrated by Joshua Luna- which I find rather amazing! but of course there are also films that have been done single-handedly such as the Makoto Shinkai movies) 

Anyway Here is a picture of "Tank Girl" illustrated by Hewlett, (who then went on to create the band: "Gorillaz" with some other dude) anyone who knows of it will know it's absolutely mental, she's basically a beer swilling, bad-mouthed, kangaroo-shagging, (Is set in the out-back of Australia) tank driving maniac who with her half-man-kangaroo boyfriend "booga" go on an assortment of various missions- what I don't know as I've not got around to reading them yet! so my description of Tank girl may not be wholly accurate! but basically I thought it looked like a fun read, I liked the punky-vivien westwood- british pop culture type feel it had and just the total bizarreness! plus there are the elements of violence, anarchy and metafiction that just add to it's appeal and make for a very interesting and inspiring read! (I hope!) 

Tank girl was also made into a diabolically crap movie that the authors still to this day state: "killed tank girl" and that she will never be the same again because of... well we can always bypass the film, (as I am) and read through the comics that were written when I was probably about 8! so it's strangely nostalgic reading them now even though I never heard of them when I was younger but because I know it's from the years I was growing up as a child so it has alot of familiar 80's elements in it.

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!

Just thought I'd write about a recent Graphic novel I bought called "Girls" by Joshua Luna, One of the Luna brothers, (obviously!) They were both born in California and have been drawing sinse they were 5, they both went to the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with BFA's in sequential art.

The hard back edition of Girls that I have is roughly A4 size and collects the entire series in 624 pages! It cost me around £50 but in my opinion it was worth every penny! from the supreme glossy finish, the incredible artwork, and the deluxe hardback casing and slip-case.

What I find remarkable is that Joshua single handedly wrote the entire series AND did the accompanying artwork! The story is amazing, It's about an alien attack on a small town, but the aliens all happen to be girls! however it is not as it sounds, the main focus here is the plot, the story line is tight and it works, it keeps you reading and reels you in, in fact the whole thing feels as though you are watching a movie, this could easily be adapted into a feature film and although there are plenty of alien invasion films this one does it differently, choosing to home in on human relationships, the way we interact with one another and how being in a crisis changes that, the characters have layers and inner conflicts, they are not simply "cardboard", and their actions are what shock you as the reader the most, the aliens are merely a side dish to the underlying themes that are explored.

I won't say anymore as I have more books and stuff to write about! plus I don't want to droan on too much as no one reads these posts as it is! 

well as my computer, (that I paid well over a grand for in september) has bloody had it! (I can't upload a dam thing! it's really pissing me off, we are meant to blog frequently but I can't flippin upload nothing!-oh well it's just let me upload that one! typical, still won't let me upload my other stuff though! grrrr) anyway here is a link to read the first issue of "Girls" for free!!

http://www.imagecomics.com/iconline.php?title=girls_001&page=cover